Ghost of a Chance
by Cloclo2388
Summary: Taking place after the Indigo League. Betrayal and Tragedy lead Ash to make a deal with the Lord of the Reverse World. Now, with new strength and power, what will the young trainer do to make a comeback? Smart/Strong/Scary Ash.
1. Chapter 1: The Betrayal and Deal

**New Story! Woot!**

 **Let's see how you guys like this one that's been twirling around in my head for a while.**

 **In this story, Ash is betrayed by his friends and Pokemon after Indigo, due to Charizard's performance. Only Pikachu is on his side and.. well.. let's not spoil it, just read.**

 **Just something to hold you off while waiting on my first story's sequel.**

 **If you like it, i'll continue it.**

 **DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN POKEMON**

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Kanto is typically a very nice place. A beautiful region with a good balance of large cities, small towns, and vast forests. it is famous for being the birthplace of many great trainers, including the Legendary Champion Red.

However, one young soul didn't see any of that as he walked along a lonely dirt road.

The boy was young, around ten or eleven, just old enough to be a pokemon trainer. He wore a tattered blue and white jacket over a black shirt with fresh holes in it, ripped blue jeans, fingerless gloves, and a worn out looking League Expo hat. At the moment, said hat was tipped to hide the young boy's eyes from the world.

In his arms was a smallish, wrapped up bundle, which the boy clung onto like life itself depended upon it. Around his waist was a black belt that had been modified to hold six pokeballs. However, at the moment, the belt was empty...

The boy's name was Ash Ketchum, and in the bundle he carried was the last precious possession he had left in his life, and even then, it would soon be away from him...

As the boy passed through Saffron, he ignored the many stared he had attracted due to his appearance. Instead, his mind was focused on what had happened a little over a week ago...

/-/-/-/Flashback, 1 week, 2 days ago\\-\\-\\-\

Ash and Pikachu were sitting by a lake just outside of the Indigo Plateau. It was a beautiful night, and the moon's reflection seemed to smile as Trainer and pokemon looked over the vast body of water.

Still, Ash's mind was on his loss, and the events of that day. Team Rocket's interference, The League's lack of sympathy, Charizard's rebellious streak.. it was like he had been set up to lose.

With a heavy sigh, Ash turned his attention towards his partner. Pikachu turned his attention towards his friend and trainer and smiled. He then hopped onto the boy's shoulder and rub his red cheek against Ash's cold one, "Pik kapi, Pikachu!" the little mouse said in an encouraging manner, making the boy smile.

"Thanks, Pikachu, I needed that." He said as he put a smile on his face.

"Ash" A familiar female voice called to him from behind.

When the young trainer turned around, he was slightly surprised to see Misty, Brock, his mom, and Professor Oak there, along with all of his other pokemon, including Charizard. This caused Ash to tilt his head in confusion. Where they there to encourage him? Congratulate him? Not likely since Charizard was with them.. not unless they bribed him.

"Ashton.. we need to talk," his mother said with a frown on her face.

Okay, now he knew it was serious. She almost never called him by his full name. Ash hastily stood up with Pikachu still on his shoulder and asked, "is something wrong?"

They all nodded, and his mother continued, "Ash.. we've all been talking about your performance in the last match.."

"I know.." Ash said solemnly, "not exactly my best moment...especially since Team Rocket tired my team out.." he then did his best to perk himself up, "but don't worry, I'll get better and-"

"I'm afraid not.." He was interrupted by the Professor, "While you did do better than most trainers do in their first year, your performance was absolutely abysmal," he said with a scowl, "never have I witnessed a trainer lose because they had no control over a pokemon. Usually because their smart enough not to such a pokemon!"

"Bu-But.." Ash said as he backed up from the harshness of Professor Oak's words, "I- I had no choice! Pidgeotto was too tired and-"

"Gio! Pidgeotto!" the bird in question squawked angrily. It was then that he noticed that all of his pokemon except for pikachu was glaring at him.

"Pidgeotto's right!" Brock said as he stepped forward, "You shouldn't blame her for your loss"

"Squirtle Squirt!"

"Bulba!"

"I'm not!" the young trainer protested, "I didn't have time to switch out my teams-"

"Because you were late!" his mother shouted, "just like you were late to get your starter, you were late to one of the most important matched of your life!"

"Because Team Rocket almost captured me and-"

"And WHAT!" Misty yelled, "we beat those morons on a daily basis no problem! Are you saying that you were too weak to beat them on your own?!" she yelled, while everyone else nodded in agreement.

By this point Ash was in tears, and Pikachu was sparking in anger, "You..you guys don't understand what happened. It was.."

"Enough Ash.." Professor Oak said, cutting him off again, "Your actions tonight not only embarrassed yourself and possibly ruined your reputation, but it may have ruined mine and the rest of Pallet Town's as well.."

The young, distressed boy looked at their angered faces and asked, "what are you saying.."

Misty groaned, "are you really that stupid?"

Then Brock spoke up, "what we're saying is.. we don't think you have what it takes to be a Pokemon trainer!"

At that statement, Ash's eyes went as wide as dinner plates. They... didn't think he could do it? His friends and family didn't believe in him?

The Professor nodded, "which is why, come tomorrow, I will be revoking your license due to incompetency." He pokemon roared together in agreement. In other words, they didn't want him to be their trainer anymore. That realization made the boy sink to his knees in shock.

"See Ash? Even your pokemon agree with us?" Misty said as she continued to glare at the broken boy. Maybe now they could get the message through his thick skull.

Then, Delia spoke up, "And I'm afraid you won't be welcomed in Pallet Town anymore either," she said, "no one is going to want to associate themselves with you after this."

That was the last straw, for Pikachu anyway, "PIKA! PIKA PIKA! KA CHU PI!" the little mouse yelled as its cheeked sparked dangerously. How dare they do this to his trainer, friend, and brother?! The one responsible for saving half their lives, including his.

Everyone's attention turned towards the electric type, "hmm.. it seems as though we have a vote in Ash's favor.." Oak said, "That won't do.."

"poor thing," Delia said, although there was no sympathy in her voice, "it's been blinded by their so-called friendship.."

"I'll take care of it.." Brock said as he stepped forward, "Onix, Geodude, Zubat, come on out!"

In a flash, the three pokemon appeared, snapping Ash out of his reverie as he tried to assess what was going on..

"Good idea!" Misty said as she released her pokemon, "Staryu, Starmie, I choose you!" she yelled, calling out the star-shaped Pokemon.

"Tauros! I choose you" The professor said, calling out one of Ash's Tauros, who stomped angrily, eager for a fight.

"Go Mimey!" Delia said as she called out the one pokemon she had. it also looked ready to fight as it glared at the boy.

Now, even a dense person like Ash could see that the odds were not in his favor. So he did the only thing his mind could tell him to do. He grabbed Pikachu and ran!

"Get him!"

As the young distraught boy ran through the small woodlands that surrounded the Indigo Plateau, he contemplated on what he could do. Right now, at 11-to-1, there was no way he and Pikachu could win this fight. Right now, he just had to get away from them, then maybe he could start over elsewhere and-

"There he is!"

He ducked as a Watergun shot right where his head would've been. He then tumbled as a powerful Flamethrower just missed him. He ducked behind trees and shrubs as he was bombarded by more attacks.

'Keep running.. keep running,' that's all his mind told him to do. Keep running...

And he kept running.. until he met something he didn't want to see..

A wall..

A 60 ft Rock wall.. the natural edge of the Plateau...

As soon as he saw that he couldn't climb it, Ash knew he was screwed.

"Enough of this!" yelled the Professor as he and the others caught up, "Tauros, use take down!"

The raging bull mooed out as it stampeded towards its former trainer, intent on knocking him and the rat out.

"Pika!" Pikachu yelled as it bravely leapt from Ash's hold and Thundershocked the bull, stopping it in its tracks.

"Mimey, use Psychic!" Delia yelled, causing the poor mouse to stop his attack as he cried out in pain. Now Tauros had nothing to stop him as he continued his attack. As it was still in the psychic grip, Pikachu couldn't dodge, and nothing could stop the bull from using the sharp end of its horns to send Pikachu flying.

"PIKA!"

"NO! PIKACHU!"

"Onix! End this now! Iron Tail! FULL POWER!"

"NO!" Ash yelled as he tried to run towards his faithful starter, only to be stopped as a flamethrower, watergun, and razorleaf hit him all at once, sending him crashing to the ground, half-way conscious.

The Last thing he heard was "PIKAPI!" before the Iron tail struck, sending dust and dirt everywhere.

Then, the world went black..

The poor boy had woken up the day after in the Pokemon Center. As soon as he was conscious, he started asking the nurse Joy about Pikachu.

The worst moment of his life had happened when the Nurse looked down sadly and said, "I'm sorry..the damage was too great.."

\\-\\-\\-\\-\Present time/-/-/-/-/

Now, Ash walked, seemingly aimlessly, towards what could possibly be his final destination. Lavender Town.

He walked for a week straight with little food, water, or rest, but he didn't care. In his current state of mind, nothing else matter except getting to Lavender Town.

In his arms, bundled up in a sheet, were what remained of his best friend. Not only had Tauros' horns pierced him and done severe internal damage, but Onix's brutal Iron tail had broken several bones, including his neck. The nurse said that much more force than necessary had been used, which led to the injuries.

While an Officer Jenny had taken his statement of what happened, he doubt anything would be done. Brock was a Gym Leader, so he had a lot of pull in the League, and Professor Oak was... well.. that's self explanatory.

His mother.. well.. there was no going back there. She made it perfectly clear that she and the rest of Pallet never wanted to see him again.

He was alone... with nothing to fall back on.. not even a best friend to turn to.. that last thought was the hardest to swallow as he had to force himself to not look under the sheet and keep going. He had one final trip to make. Then everything will be fine...

\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\

Lavender Town hadn't changed at all since his last visit here. Foggy, dreary, cloudy..perfect for his mood.

Same went for the Pokemon Tower. It had the same eerie, forbidden, and depressive feeling to it. None of that deterred the young boy as he stepped inside without even hesitating.

As other visitors and trainers mourned their fallen partners, Ash silently climbed the Tower stairs to a more secluded area.

Eight flights of stairs later, Ash had made it to an area free of trainers. There were few graves stones and plots, but still plenty of room. In the center of the room was some kind of altar, possibly dedicated to the Ghost types that lived in the tower. On that altar was a large grey, pearl-like orb that shined an eerie light. How long had that been there? Oh well..

Without really thinking, Ash stepped in front of the orb and got down on his knees.

Then, for the first time since Indigo, the young trainer partially removed the sheet from Pikachu's face.

His eyes were closed, his body was rigid, his previously bright yellow fur was now pale, dry, and slightly blood-stained. Seeing his friend like that was the last straw. He held his former starter close as he silently and bitterly weeped...

Hearing the boy's sorrow, three familiar faces appeared around him, all wearing an uncharacteristically solemn look. Ghastly, Haunter, and Gengar, the same three ghosts that showed Ash the time of his life for one magical night, silently gathered around him to help console the boy. Ash wasn't even aware of their presence.

"Please.." Ash sobbed out as his tears continued to pour, pulling a knife from his backpack. He stared at it, tempted to cut something vital and end his pain, then dropped it on the ground in front of him, "Please..someone help me.." he said softly, 'I have nowhere to go..I.." he looked up at the orb with shining, saddened eyes, "I don't know what to do.."

He then looked down again, not even noticing that the Orb was beginning to glow. The Ghosts did though as they looked on with wide, fearful eyes.

"I'd give anything to have my best friend back.." he said in voice barely above a whisper.

 _'really now...'_ A new voice said, causing Ash to pop his head up with a start.

It was only then that he noticed that the Orb was glowing with a dim, grey light.

Then, as the orb shined brighter, something in front of it started to form. It looked almost like a shiny mirror like surface that spread out to cover a 3 by 3 foot of space.

Within that mirror, a large black face appeared, causing Ash to back up in fright, and the face to chuckle.

 _'So.. you say you'd give up anything to have your friend back..'_

At first, Ash was too stunned to talk. Then after a minute, he slowly nodded his head, "uh..yea..but..who are you?"

The face's red eye flashed before it spoke _, ' I am known.. as Giratina.. King of the distortion world, and Lord of all Ghosts and Spirits. What you humans call.. a Legendary.'_

The three ghost in the background bowed in respect to their lord. Every ghost Pokemon dreams of meeting the Lord of spirits, and this was their chance.

Ash nodded again as he digested what was said and what was happening. He then looked at Giratina and asked, "and you.. said you could help me?"

 _'hmm..'_ it nodded its large head, _'I have seen your heart.. once pure, it is now full of sorrow, betrayal, hatred.. all of these are emotions that harbor in my own heart.'_

The boy looked down. It was true. Sorrow for the loss of his friend, Betrayal for what his former friends did to him, and hatred went right with that. He hated them for taking his best friend away!

 _'However..'_ The Legendary continued, _'I also sense promise, strength, and passion. You could go far, if given the chance.'_

This caused Ash to smile a bit. At least something believed in him, and it was a Legendary Pokemon no less.

 _'Now..'_ Giratina spoke again, _'I will bring you your friend back, as he eagerly awaits to rejoin you on the mortal side. However, he will not be in the form of a Pikachu._ '

Ash nodded slowly, "what will he be then?"

The Legend chuckled, _'That is or me to decide..'_ he said, _'As for what you must do..'_

"Anything!" Ash quickly said, "I'll do anything to get Pikachu back, not matter what form he's in!"

His response once again made Giratina chuckle, _'very well..'_

Suddenly, Pikachu's body started to levitate off the ground, and was surrounded by a golden orb of light. The orb grew bigger and bigger until it was the size of beach ball. Then the light grew brighter, and brighter. So bright that Ash had to turn away. Then, the light broke into a shower of smaller lights and sparkles, revealing..

"...Rotom?"

Ash stared at the strange looking pokemon in front of him. He had never seen anything like it. It was small, about the size Pikachu was. It had a rounded head with a spike coming out of the top and another smaller ball at the bottom for a body, and two lightning bolt shaped appendages. Its body was a bright orange color, outlined with bright blue energy, and it had two large blue eyes.

The new Pokemon looked at himself, just as perplexed as Ash was. What form was this, what did he look like?

Curious, Ash called out to it, "...Pikachu?"

"Ro?" the little pokemon turned toward the voice, before seeing Ash standing there. Immediately, its mouth spread into a huge smile, "TOM! ROTOM!" It said as it immediately hugged the boy, extending the length of its lightning bolt arms and giving the trainer one hell of a jolt in the process.

Still, Ash didn't care as she eagerly hugged him back, "oh my gosh, I've missed you buddy!" he said as fresh tears came to his eyes.

"Rotom! Rotom!" it shouted, indicating that it felt the same way.

The trio of ghosts looked on happily at the reunion between Pokemon and trainer. It was touching to say the least. No one noticed a cloud of darkness come out of the mirror until it appeared over Ash's head

"Geng!" The ghost type said in alarm.

"Ro?" "Huh?" the partners said in unison before looking up and noticing the huge shadow. That was their only warning before it attached itself to Ash's back.

"Gaaaahhh!" the trainer yelled out in pain as the shadow tried to take over his body. He had no idea what it was trying to do, but he didn't like it, so he fought back. He quickly removed his tattered shirt and jacket in order to try and stop it. His hat fell to the ground in the process.

 _'Don't fight it!'_ said the voice of Giratina, _'this is part of our deal. Accept the shadow and all will be explained.'_

"A..Accept it?" Ash repeated before taking a deep breath and relaxed. Still the pain was still present as the boy grit his teeth to keep from yelling out. The four ghost pokemon watched in morbid fascination as the shadow was fully absorbed into the trainer's body, before branching out over his back, down his spine, and across his rib cage like a possessive tattoo. Two long, sharp looking black tentacles-like apendages with intricate arcane patterns inside of them formed over his shoulders to point to his chest. Two more spread to the side over his rib cage, and the last twospread to appear over his stomach, with the ends pointing towards his belly button. (AN: like I said, it's a tattoo.. at first glance anyway :D)

As the shadows finally settled, it looked like a giant tattoo of the six appendages Giratina was famous for.

Once the pain had subsided, Ash took a few deep breaths to recover from the experience. When he stood up, he noticed several changes. One, he felt like he had more muscle. Two his vision and hearing was much sharper than before. And three, his teeth felt... sharper..

"Here.." a voice called out, which turned out to be Haunter. When Ash turned towards it, he realized that it was holding a mirror. A normal, smaller, handheld one.

As looked at his own reflection, he almost dropped the hand-mirror. His eyes.. they were.. purple.. and slightly slit, like a cat's eyes. He then noticed that his skin was paler than before, if only slightly.

 _'This is part of our deal,_ ' Giratina spoke up again, _'I have marked you, and fraction of my power is now inside of you. You are now my familiar.'_ he explained, _'you must swear your allegiance to me, and only me, and do my bidding when called.'_ he then chuckled, _'I also want you to show this world the power of the Ghosts.'_

As the Legendary finished, Ash smiled. He now knew what he had to do. He had a new goal in life. He turned towards Giratina and bowed respectfully, "After all you have done for me, I am more than happy to swear my loyalty and allegiance to you, my lord."

With what appeared to be a smile, the Ghost Legend nodded, _'so be it.'_ With that, the floating mirror shattered and the light faded, leaving the room in the exact same way it was.

At first, everything was silent. Then it was broken by a higher-pitched, almost cute voice saying, "well that was weird..."

Ash snorted and said, "tell me about it..", before realizing something, "wait a second..Rotom?"

"Hmm?" he said as he looked at Ash, before his eyes went wide, "hey! you can understand me!" Its smile then doubled in size, "this is gonna be so awesome!" he said as he flipped in the air.

Ash couldn't help but chuckle at the little ghost's antics, "so, you really are my pikachu, huh?"

"Yup!" it said, "different body, but same old me!" he said happily, before putting on a mischievous smile, "i'll even prove it! Remember that one time in Celadon, where you had to dress up in drag and-"

"OK OK I Believe you!" Ash said as he cut that memory off quick, making the other ghosts laugh heartily.

The young pre-teen then turned to the mysterious orb in the middle of the room, where Giratina had made its appearance. As he walked closer to it, he asked, "So what is this thing anyway? And how were we able to see Giratina?"

Gengar answered, his voice reflecting his natural pokemon voice, "It's called the Specter's Orb, a gift from lord Giratina himself. Before the ghost lord was sent to the Reverse World, he left one of these Orbs in each of the major regions of the world. Each orb allows his presence to be known, and attracts ghost type pokemon from all around, thus making a viable habitat for them. While the Location of the orbs are unknown to man, they are revered and heavily guarded by the ghost types of the world."

Ash nodded slowly, then stopped short, "wait, if that's true, then why did you let me up here?"

This time, Haunter answered, "because we trust you, and felt your sorrow. We knew you needed help."

"That, and something told us to let you through.." answered Ghastly, "We now know that that something was the lord himself."

Ash smiled and nodded as he checked out his new look. All in all, he liked it. He then turned to his old shirt and jacket on the floor and frowned, 'I need a new look.."

"We can get some clothes for you easily" Gengar said with that ghostly smirk of his

"yes, easy Peezy!" Haunter said with a laugh

The young trainer smirked, "excellent. Thanks guys!"

The Pikachu-turned-Rotom twirled through the air, testing out its new body, "Wheeee! I already like the idea of being a ghost type!" he said as he flew through the air, making the others chuckle.

"You're still going to need training, Rotom. That's the only way you'll really get used to your new body and its properties." Ash said as he watched his friend.

"You'll need training too, Ash" Ghastly said, making the trainer tilt his head, "what do you mean?"

"Lord Giratina gave you a taste of his power, meaning that you also now have some of the properties and powers of a ghost!" the ball-like pokemon said excitedly, "In time, there's no telling what you'll be able to do!"

The more the ghost talked, the more Ash got excited as well. He had the powers of a ghost type? This was so awesome!

He then turned to Rotom as a thought donned on him, "oh yea! we need to scan you. Hold on a sec!" he said as he pulled out his old Pokedex from his neglected backpack and pushed the scan button.

 _ **ERROR:**_

 _Pokedex deactivated. Ash Ketchum's Trainer's license revoked indefinitely. Please confiscate and return to Professor Samuel Oak immediately!_

Hearing this, Ash and the others frowned. Looked like the old man was true to his word. This could be a problem.

"Don't worry Ash," Rotom said, "we'll figure something out.."

The young boy just smiled and nodded. They would figure something out.

"In that case.." Ash said as he threw the Pokedex out the nearest window, "I have some research to do.. but in the mean time.." he looked over the four ghosts in front of him and smirked, "Let's have some fun"

\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\

 **Was the first part too depressing?**

 **I wanted you to shed some tears, but not cry a river.**

 **Of course I wouldn't kill Pikachu off. He's just.. not a Pikachu. Anyways. Not bad for an opening chapter.**

 **The next one will show how Ash will become a trainer again and what some of his abilities will be.**

 **reviews appreciated. Flames will be drowned in the eternal abyss. I mean it!**


	2. Chapter 2: Tower Time

Chapter 2...

Ready for more Ghost stories? MUAHAHAHAHA!

Anyways, let's get started.

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN POKEMON!

\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\

A few months had passed since the initial events at the Pokemon Tower, and since then Ash and his ghoulish friends had gotten stronger.

Pikachu-turned-Rotom quickly adjusted to his new body and had endless fun possessing the appliances scattered around the tower and scaring the crap out of other visitors that ventured to deep into the tower. It during this time that Ash learned more about Rotom's new abilities and attacks.

Ash also got adjusted to his new-found abilities. With Giratina's essence flowing through him, he found that he could use Pokemon attacks, like Shadow Ball, Astonish, and Confuse Ray. He also found that, with practice, he could turn into a ghost!..albeit only for a short period of time.

The Gastly Trio also went to work as well, by training.

With Ash's help, they got stronger and learned new moves. Ash also made sure they all had completely different move sets to differentiate from one another. It also indirectly took care of another issue.

Before training started, Ash found out early that neither Gastly or Haunter wanted to evolve. For Haunter, it was an easy solution since he couldn't evolve anyway without a trade. For Ghastly it was a little more complicated. Essentially, he had to go through the same process as Bulbasaur did, where he had to learn to resist evolution. This method would have to do until they found an everstone.

Another issue that was also fixed quickly, and hopefully permanently, was the problem of Ash not having an active Trainer's license.

After finding and talking with the Tower's eldery caretaker, a deal was made. The man would be his sponsor as long as Ash did not upset the atmosphere and other ghost of the tower with his training and ghosts antics. The man had even allowed Ash to live in the tower for now as long as the ghosts didn't mind. The local Nurse Joy, who had come to admire Ash's skill and spirit, also helped in making Ash a new Lavender Town trainer's permit, under the name of Ashura Shadowclaw.

Of course, the ghosts didn't mind Ash living there, they actually insisted upon it. Now they could have fun every day.

The next issued they fixed was making a training ground. Turned out that there were several areas around the Tower and Lavender Town that severed as good areas for practicing attacks and increasing stats.

For practice battles, however, the best place they found was in a very surprising spot: The huge Dining room, the largest room in the Tower outside of the grave areas.

Through some manipulation of the large amount of otherworldly energy that circulated through the tower, Ash and his friends were able to manipulate it so that the room would be sound-proof and battle friendly whenever needed. As Ash trained more, he was eventually able to use illusions to manipulate how the room looked during those times. Needless to say it was fun.

However, the true fun began when pokemon trainers first stumbled upon their battle room...

"A-Are you sure about this, Geoff?" a boy said as he jumped at every strange sound the Tower made.

"Of course!" the boy Geoff said confidently, "we need a ghost type to beat that Sabrina witch! How else do you expect to beat someone like her?"

"Umm, I-I don't know.." his timid friend said softly, "t-training?"

Geoff rolled his eyes, "That'll just take too long! Come on Jack, show some enthusiasm, or at least grow a backbone! We've got ghosts to hunt!" he said with a fist pump he climbed the tower, with his frightened friend two steps behind.

As they climbed, they felt more of their hairs stand on end as the forbidden feeling the Tower gave off got more intense.

As the two friend made it to an area away from the graves, they got more hopeful. These were areas that people didn't typically go, and hopefully, where ghosts haunt more often.

After an hour of searching, they finally found an area of interest : the Tower's large kitchen. It was..surprisingly clean. The lights were all working and it looked completely operational.

"Woah.." Jack said as he peeked from behind Geoff, who nodded in response.

"You think... s-someone lives here?" Jack asked as he ran a hand over the clean counters.

"Pfft, I doubt it," Geoff replied, "who in their right mind would live in a creepy place like this?"

"But..but look.." the younger scaredy-cat said as he opened the refrigerator, "the fridge is fully stocked!"

This got the attention of his more confident friend, who came over to check it out. The fridge was indeed full of tasty looking, fresh food, "strange..."

Then, something happened.. the fridge changed color from white to orange..

..and grew eyes...

..and a mouth...

... and started to laugh!

"RO-HO-HO-HO-HO-TOM!"

Both trainers screamed as they were suddenly blasted by what felt like a Blizzard attack, and frozen to the bone. Their fear didn't let them stay stationary for long, as they both broke out of the ice and ran out of the room, screaming their heads off.

The next room they ran into appeared to be a well kept, small dining room, no bigger than 10x10 feet. In the room was a simple round table with plates and silverware for one. There was also a small counter with a microwave, a fan, and a couple cabinets.

The boys took a moment to catch the breath as they looked around, thinking the same thing. Why would the table be set for one? And why was there a microwave and a fan in a place this old?

They didn't have time to contemplate, as more haunting laughter was heard, sending a shiver down the boys' spines. Next thing they saw was the plate and silverware floating in front of them, and the cabinets opening and closing erratically.. on their own!

"Uhh...G-Geoff?"

"D-Don't be scared!" Geoff told his friend, "It's just the ghosts trying to mess with us." he said as he got out a pokeball.

The fan started to shake as it suddenly turned on full blast, blowing the boys' hair and clothes around. Then, the fan went under the same transformation that the refrigerator did, changing color and gaining a creepy looking face. Then, the face began to laugh maliciously as the power of the wind turned up ten-fold, literally blowing the boys into the next room.

"Ugh.." Geoff said as the room stopped spinning, "you..you ok, Jack?"

"Uhh.. yea, just get off me.." Jack responded.. from under Geoff.

"Whoops!" said the older trainer as he frantically got up, and helped his friend to stand.

That's when the boys heard more laughter. Only it didn't sounded like the same haunting laughter that had been following them.. This time it almost sounded human.

Once the boys stood up, they looked around the room. It was another dining room, only this one was at least ten times bigger than the last one. It was well lit by two chandeliers and a line of smaller, fire-lit candles on each side wall. There were two long, wooden tables lined with fancy looking chairs, as well as gold-lined plates with a complete set of silverware.

"Woah.." Jack whispered, impressed by the state of the dining room. Geoff, however, was more focused on the figure sitting at one of the tables in the far back corner of the room.

It was a boy, around their age. He had medium length, pitch black hair that had been pulled back into a small pony-tail, pale-ish skin, and ziz-zag marks on his cheeks. He was wearing a black, short-sleeve jacket over a dark purple shirt, and around his neck was a pendant of what looked like a Ghastly. In front of the boy was a deck of cards and a pile of poker chips. As he held five in his own, semi-gloved hands, another hand of five were ...floating on their own?

The boy chuckled and smirked, "I see you've met some of my friends.." he said as he placed a small stack of chips in front of him, "tell me, what did you think of Rotom?"

"R-R-Rotom?" the young Jack stuttered out. The fact that another human was up here was creepy enough, but the boy himself looked.. downright scary.

"Mhm.." the boy hummed as he turned his sharp, purple eyes towards them, "he loves possessing the appliances scattered around this part of the Tower. It's his favorite game." The boy smirked as he placed his hand down, revealing a straight flush of diamonds, "The others have their fun too, making various objects float, and scaring the trainers and curious idiots that foolishly venture this deep into the tower."

Hearing this, Geoff growled, "so it was you that told them to attack us?!"

The pale boy chuckled, "no, of course not. They do that on their own as a way to defend their turf, as well as have some fun!" he said as he collected the chips.. which floated to him, before turning to the boys, "you are kind of trespassing into their territory after all.."

Jack tilted his head, while Geoff just glared, "yea?! Well so are you! You're not a ghost, so you're trespassing just as we are! You don't belong here!"

The dark-haired boy just shook his head, "actually.." he said as he stood up and the cards floated away. He stared right at the boys with his almost glowing purple eyes, "I do belong here."

As soon as he said this, a mysterious and ominous wind blew through the room, rattling the plates and silverware, as well as the two boys, whose heart rates were going up by the second.

"L-Let's go, Geoff. Let's just leave!" the smaller boy pleaded, "It's not worth it!"

"No way!' Geoff said stubbornly, "I came here for a ghost type and I'm not leaving here without one!"

The wind only got more vicious as the pale boy stared at them both, then smirked, "Alright then, I'll cut you a deal," he said as he fixed his hair, his voice seemingly echoing off the room's walls, "Let's have a battle. You win, I'll lead you to the best areas in the Tower to find Ghost Pokemon. You lose, and you leave, empty handed. Deal?"

"Geoff..." Jack warned timidly, but was ultimately ignored by his friend.

"Deal!" The older boy said as he got out a pokeball, "two on two!" the he yelled, ready to take down this creep and get a ghost type.

The boy just nodded, "very well," he said as he walked towards the middle of the back wall and snapped his fingers. Within moments ,the tables, chairs, and tablewear flew towards the sides of the room and disappeared... as if they weren't there at all! The Chandeliers moved upwards, and side lights dimmed, giving the now empty room an eerie feel.

As the happened, the two trespassers trembled with a new fear, while the dark-haired boy across from them smirk, almost chuckling at their reaction.

Still, the boy, Geoff, took a deep breath as he forced himself to calm down before stepping forward, "My name is Geoff Hunter of Viridian City!" he said, as customary for trainers to introduce themselves.

"And my name is Ashura.. resident Ghost trainer and keeper of Lavender Town, at your service," the boy said with a mock bow. He then stood up and crossed his arms across his chest, "Now that introductions are out of the way, how about we get started. HAUNTER!" he yelled to the ceiling. Almost instantly, the mid-evolution Gas Pokemon appeared, seemingly seeping from the shadows.

The happy looking ghost stared at the two visiting trainers, who couldn't help but shudder at the evil-like stare.

Geoff then steeled himself again and tightened the grip on his pokeball, "Go! Charmeleon!" he yelled as he threw it. In a flash, a red lizard-like pokemon appeared, with a rounded horn on the top of his head and a flame on the end of its tail. The fire type let out a burst of flame as it faced its opponent.

Ashura frowned heavily as it glared at the starter. He harbored some resentment for the Charmander line, due to past experience. Still, he wouldn't go all out right away, he would at least give them a chance to fight back.

"Is he your starter?" he asked in a calm voice.

"Nope! But he is one of my strongest Team mates! You'll meet my starter later if you even get past this one!" the boy said confidently. Type aside, he knew that the fire type had to strength to take on just about anything. Charmeleon seemed to agree as it let out another snort of flame.

Ashura just smirked. Arrogance appeared to be standard with the species. Or maybe it just came from the trainer, he couldn't tell. Anyways, the show was about to start.

"Alright then, you can have first move," the ghost trainer said as his purple eyes shined in the dimmed light.

"fine by me!" Geoff yelled, "Charmeleon, Flamethrower!"

The flame pokemon smirked as it shot out a torrent of hot flames, aimed right at the stationary ghost type.

Ash just smirked and whispered, "Into the shadows, then scare!" even though it was whispered, the voice seemed to come from everywhere..

Upon command, Haunter seemingly melted into the darkness afforded by room's dim lighting, successfully dodging the attack. As both Charmander and his trainer looked around the room for any sign of their opponent, both were caught off guard as Haunter reappeared right in front of the fire type with its face distorted to look like some sort of horrific monster!

As a result, both trainer and pokemon yelped in surprise and fear. The attack was successful as the ghost and trainer shared a laugh at the reaction.

Geoff audibly growled. He would not let some ghost get the drop on him! "Charmeleon, use Dragon Rage!"

With a huge inhale of air, the fire type released a bluish flame out of its mouth towards the floating Haunter. As the flames reached their target, the attack exploded spectacularly.

"Yes!" Geoff said as he pumped his fist, "direct hit! Now Charmeleon, go in for Fire Fang!"

Charmeleon nodded as it charged ahead, albeit slower than usual, its mouth ablaze with fire. It ran forward and chomped down... on nothing.

"Char?" it muttered as it looked around curiously.

"Behind you!" it's trainer yelled as it turned around to see the giggling ghost hovering over it.

"Flamethrower!" Geoff yelled, seeing his chance.

"Sucker Punch," Ashura said calmly as he watched the fight.

As Charmleon readied its flame, it was suddenly struck by a dark, see-through fist that sent it reeling backwards and to the ground.

"What? But how?!" Geoff said, astonished. Ashura just chuckled, "surely you know that Sucker Punch is a special priority move. As long as the opponent is readying an attack, it always hits first," he said with a coy smile.

The other trainer just growled. He had forgotten about that, "Charmeleon! Get up and use smokescreen!"

The little flame Pokemon sat up with a grunt and shot a huge cloud of smoke right into Haunter's face. Soon, the entire middle of the battlefield was filled with the dark, murky smoke.

"Alright, Charmeleon, evasive maneuvers!" Geoff called out, "we gotta get back into this fight!"

It was then that his opponent let out another ominous chuckle.

"What's so funny!" Geoff yelled, further aggravated by his opponent's strange behavior.

Ashura just smirked, "The funny thing is.." he said as his smirked deepened, "the smoke helps me just as much as it helps you.."

As if on cue, Charmeleon appeared above the smoke and in the air, caught in the disembodied claws of Haunter.

"CHARMELEON!" Geoff yelled worriedly.

"Finish this please.." Ash told his pokemon with a small frown. For such big talk, this battle had been a disappointment, and it was best to end it rather than torture the victim.

Haunter nodded and hit the fire type with a move Ash taught him, Thunder Punch.

Charmeleon hit the ground hard but still struggled to get up, even though its body was crackling with electricity. Frowning for the first time since the battle started, Haunter formed a black and blue ball of energy in his hands, and sent it flying towards the ire type, successfully knocking it out.

Biting back a growl, Geoff returned his pokemon and got out a new pokeball, "Not bad, but this is far from over, kid!" he said as he called out his next and last pokemon. A huge Blastoise appeared, cocking its cannons as soon as it settled.

Ashura nodded, "So he's your starter then. Tell me, how did you get two starter pokemon in your arsenal?" "Oh the irony in that question, seeing what his past pokemon were.. still, he was curious.

The opponent just smiled, "It's all about having the right connections. Charmeleon was a gift from a friend of mind that breeds Charmanders."

"Interesting.." Ash said as he nodded to Haunter, who instantly disappeared, "I have just the counter for that behemoth then. ROTOM!" He yelled.

Again, almost instantly, a new pokemon appeared, although neither Geoff nor Jack recognized it right away, "W-What is that pokemon?"

Then, Jack started to stutter in fear, "I-I think it was t-the same p-pokemon that was sc-scaring up earlier!"

Rotom smirked and nodded rapidly before twirling around.

They both got out their Pokedex's, only to the same result.

'No Pokemon Data Available. Please see regional reference guide'

Geoff growled. "So it's from another region, eh? It's probably just another ghost type."

"Hold on, I think it's an electric type too!" Jack said as he came forward, "see those appendages below it? They look just like lightning bolts!"

Ashura smiled, "your friend is smart. A lot smarter than you, probably.."

"Shut up!" Geoff said with a growl, "No one asked your opinion! And I don't care if that puny thing is an electric type, it's going down!"

"Blast!" the water type said in agreement.

Rotom just smirked as it surged the electricity in its body, as if saying 'bring it on!'

Ash then nodded, "I'll allow you to have the first move.."

Geoff was about to respond, before smirking, "ohhh no! That's how you got me last time! You go first!"

The ghost trainer just shrugged, "if you insist.. Rotom, Confuse Ray."

The little electric type nodded before summoning several yellow orbs of light and sending it towards the target.

"Blastoise, Withdraw then Rapid Spin!"

As the giant turtle withdrew and began its spin, the Confuse Ray hit. Geoff smiled as he believed that the attack didn't work thanks to Blastoise's unbeatable defense. He was dead wrong..

Blastoise's Rapid Spin attack became more and more erratic before going completely out of control, it's huge body spinning all around the field. Geoff and Jack began to panic as the huge Pokemon nearly flattened them before finally coming out of its shell, looking dazed.

"Wha..what happened?" Geoff said, while Ash chuckled, "you don't know much about ghosts or ghost type attacks, do you? Confuse ray will confuse the opponent as long as it hits, in spite of the area of contact. The attack can be dodged, or even blocked by something like Protect, but any direct contact, and your screwed."

Geoff, once again, growled with frustration. This kid was making him look like a noob. He had been so worked up, that he had forgotten the basics. How embarrassing.

"Blastoise, please! Snap out of it!" he yelled. Surprisingly, the large water starter was able to shake the confusion off and get back into the battle. "Alright!" Geoff yelled, "time to turn this around! Hydropump that pest! "

"Blast!" the pokemon grunted as it sent gallons of water towards its tiny opponent.

"Evade, then shockwave!" Ash said with a smirk, raising his voice for the first time in this battle. Now it was getting interesting.

Rotom nodded as he used his tiny body to easily dodge and dive around the incoming water attack, taking no damage. Rotom then smirked as it charged up and let loose a wave if electricity.

"We can't dodge that, Withdraw!" Geoff yelled. His pokemon obeyed and quickly withdrew into its shell, lessening the damage.

Ashura nodded with a smile, "so you're not completely brainless.. that's a good thing.." he said, causing his opponent to grumble, "let's try this then. Rotom, use Thundershock!"

The little ghost type nodded and let loose a large wave of thunder at the still withdrawn turtle.

"Rapid Spin!" the other trainer yelled to his water type.

Blastoise grunted before spinning around again, further lessening and even deflecting some of the attack. However, the thunder still left its mark, which was noted when the fully evolved starter suddenly stopped spinning and came out of its shell, sparking slightly.

"What the.." Geoff trailed off, "Blastoise, what's wrong?"

"Geoff, I think it's paralyzed!" Jack said frantically from behind him.

The ghost trainer smirked and nodded, "that's right.." he then turned to Rotom and nodded. The little Plasma pokemon seemed to smirked before heading straight for the sparking Blastoise.

"Here it comes, Blastoise! You gotta shake it off!" Geoff said, almost desperately

As the water type slowly got control of its body back, the smirking ghost suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Astonish.." Ash said, looking to wrap this up with the right moves.

Rotom's smile grew wider as it let out a loud shout, startling Blastoise and his trainer, making them flinch.

"Now, Thundershock!"

Rotom smirked as it charged up its lightning and let it loose, scoring a super-effective hit and making the water type yell out in pain. Once the little ghost backed off, Blastoise went to its knees, breathing heavily.

Ash then turned to the two trainers, "well.. what's your next move? And chose carefully.." he whispered, "And keep in mind that you haven't even gotten a hit on my Rotom yet.."

As Geoff listened, he growled, and lowered his head. In other words, he had no chance to win at the this point. Blastoise's damage was too heavy.

With a heavy sigh, Geoff held up the pokeball, "Blastoise... return.." he said, recalling his starter in a flash of red light.

Jack immediately came to comfort his friend for his loss. The older boy turned to him and smiled, before nodding, then turning his attention towards the raven-haired boy, "You may have won this round..Ashura.. but mark my words, I will get stronger, and I will be back!"

Ashura just smirked and nodded, " Please do.. I look forward to actually getting a challenge next time we meet.."

That said, the boys suddenly found themselves floating on thin air, before they were carried outside and out of the Tower by some other-worldly force.

As they landed outside, they immediately turned tail towards the Pokemon Center. After getting Geoff's pokemon healed, they immediately started telling other trainers about what they saw and the trainer they battled.

And that's how it began..

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

A few more months had passed since then. The amount of trainers coming to the Tower to try and defeat the 'Mysterious Ghost Trainer' was impressive, though not overwhelming, especially considering that most trainers chickened out before they even made it to Ash.

Right now, he was averaging about three braves souls a week that showed enough courage to battle him.

His ghost team had became stronger as well. They had all learned new moves with the help of some TMs he had 'earned,' and Rotom had learned some new moves as well, like discharge and Electroball.

Very few trainers had managed to defeat him, and the few that had were all from other regions, much older than he was, and had at least one Ghost or Dark Type on their team. As promised, Ash would either show them a good place to catch a ghost pokemon, or give them an item that his pokemon had 'picked up,' either a special stone or item for improving a pokemon's stats.

It didn't take long for the rumors of a powerful ghost type trainer to reach the ears of people in Pallet Town, namely one auburn-haired eleven-year old with an ego the size of Mt. Silver.

"Hah!" One Gary Oak said in a haughty voice, "We'll see how strong this so called, 'ghost master' is after he faces me! I'm the strongest trainer this side of Kanto! I'll put them in their place!"

Yes, despite coming up short in Indigo, Gary hadn't lost an ounce of his arrogance.

That in mind, the young Oak made the trek to Lavender Town. It took him two weeks, but it was well worth it.

Once there, Gary immediately started gathering information from the local trainers. While most of them ended up just getting the crap scared out of them, only one trainer he talked to actually made it to challenge the Ghost trainer.

"He's tough..and scary.." the 13-year old trainer said as a shiver went down his spine, "And those ghosts are crazy strong.. I battled one on one with his Gengar.. That thing is enough to give anyone nightmares.." he said as another violent shiver went through his body.

Gary listened intently, all the while contemplating strategies, 'looks like I'm gonna have to bring my A-game for this one. I'll have gramps send over my strongest team.'

/-/-/-/-/-/

Once he had a team together, Gary immediately set off for the infamous tower. He didn't let the ominous and nearly overwhelming presence that surrounded the place deter him as he entered.

'Let's see..' he thought to himself, 'the other trainers said he was on one of the upper floors.. where few dare to go..,' with that in mind, Gary steeled his resolve as he climbed the floors.

It was ... surprisingly quiet.. no mysterious wind, no objects moving on their own.. nothing..

"humph! What a letdown.." the arrogant brunet said to himself, "And here I was expecting a challenge. I haven't seen one ghost in this whole tower! I bet this so called master is weak as well" he said with a smirk.

Soon, he found a room that many of the other trainers had told him about.. a Kitchen, in pristine conditions. Everything from the refrigerator to the ceiling lights were in perfect working condition.

As Gary looked around, he first zeroed in on the refrigerator and the oven, both of which were apparently possessed..

..nothing..

The boy once again chuckled, "what a crock of-"

He was cut off by a strange sound.. a child's laugh...

The strange sound immediately put him on edge as he reached for his pokeballs.

*giggle...*

It seemed to echo from everywhere...

*laugh..*

It was getting louder...

*Chuckle..*

And deeper.. like a male's laugh...

"HAHAHAHAHA!"

Whipping around, he saw something that will be stuck in his nightmares for a long time...

A giant, floating, transparent human-like specter. Its body was covered in a long gray shirt, and its pitch black hair fell down past its feet. Its white arms and hands appeared to be stitched and sporting 6 inch long, sharp, black nails. The bottom half of its face was barely visible, showing its razor sharp set of teeth that appeared to have blood dripping from them. Those teeth seemed to twist into a smirk before laughing demonically.

Seeing this, Gary did the one thing that most people would do in this situation...

..he fainted.

Once the boy was down for the count, the Specter illusion broke, and Ash and his ghostly friends stood in its place, laughing their heads off.

"Oh man, that was perfect!" he said during his fit of giggles, "Did you see the look on his face? HAHAHAHA! I've waited a long time to get Gary back for the shit he put me through, but it was well worth the wait"

The others agreed as they continued their laughter.

Ash then looked down at Gary's prone form and hummed to himself, "now.. what do you with you.. how should we continue our fun.."

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

With a groan, Gary slowly but surely awakened.

How long had he been out? Minutes? Hours? Days? He had no idea...

As he looked around at his surroundings, a wave of confusion overcame him.

'Where am I?' He thought as he looked around. It looked like he was in some sort of fancy dining room.. The tables were all set and the chandeliers were shining brightly.

'This isn't right..' the boy thought as he retraced his steps, 'wasn't I at the Pokemon center last?... No, that's not right..' he huffed, 'I went to the Tower to challenge the Ghost Master.. I made it to the kitchen when,..' His thoughts trailed off as an abrupt memory of the creepy human ghost he saw flashed in his head, sending an involuntary shiver up his spine.

'That thing.. it came out of nowhere..I don't remember anything after that..' he then looked around the room some more, 'Am I still in the Tower?'

"That you are, Gare-bear.." a new, somewhat familiar voice said, as if reading his mind.

Upon turning his head abruptly to the front, Gary jumped as he was caught off guard by the new person's sudden appearance.

It was a boy, about his age. He had paler than normal skin and pitch black hair pulled into a pony tail. He was wearing an outfit of purple and black, with a ghastly pendant around his neck. The boy himself was slightly creepy, yet familiar looking. Though, Gary was sure that he didn't know anyone with purple eyes. Still.. he couldn't shake the feeling that he knew this person.

"Y-you're the ghost master, right?" the Auburn said, working up his courage. However, the more he looked the boy over, the stronger familiarity got, not to mention the nick-name, "Have we..met before?"

The pale boy adapted a somewhat hurt look, "aww, you wound me Gare-bear... And here I thought you would remember your old childhood friend-turned rival.." he said with a smirk.

That, confirmed it. There was only a few people who knew that blasted nick-name. One being his older sister, the other being..

"Ash?" Gary said with obvious shock and surprise. Last time he checked, his grandpa told him that Ash had disappeared after losing his license and his pokemon.

"That's right.." Ash said as his ghostly friends appeared around him, "I am also the infamous.. 'Ghost Master' as some people have started to call me.."

At hearing this, Gary just growled. There was no way in hell that Ash had gotten that strong in the months he had been missing.

"Ha! Yeah right!" the young Oak said smugly, "No way a weakling like you could be so strong. Gramps even said it himself when he announced to Pallet Town what had happened to you."

"Let me guess.." Ash started as he closed his eyes, "He called it an unfortunate accident caused by a trainer's illusion of his non-existent strength, or something along those lines.." he then opened one eye up again, "am I right?"

Gary was left speechless, which was saying something. Ash had pretty much repeated what his gramps had told him, "wha... how did you.."

"When you're a friend of the ghost type, you have eyes everywhere.. and no one ever realizes it.." he explained lightly while still smirking at his former rival.

Hearing this, Gary just glared at him and huffed, "whatever. Still doesn't change the fact that he was right. You're too weak to be a trainer, something I've been saying from the start..," he then smirked, "so weak that Gramps revoked your license due to incompetence, how sad.."

He was cut off when Ash frowned and his purple eyes.. how did they become purple?.. flashed. He suddenly felt a foreboding, overbearing wave of malicious intent wash over him, effectively shutting him up.

"I advise you to remember who's domain you are in.." Ash said in a low, deadly voice, "The ghosts do not take kindly to those who bully and pick on ones they consider friends."

Unable to suppress a shiver that went up his spine, Gary meekly nodded.

"As for the license issue.." he continued, "That's been taken care of, by someone who saw through Oak's rushed mistake and was willing to give me the benefit of the doubt, so now.." he smirk, "I am once again a licensed, certified pokemon trainer. An there's nothing that the old man can do about it."

"W-We'll see about that..." Gary said once he got his voice back, "but I came here for a reason, and that was to challenge the so called 'Ghost Master' " he said as he gestured the parentheses with his fingers, "So I guess, since that's supposedly you, I challenge you to a battle!"

Ash just chuckled as he stood up from his chair, "Gary.. I've been waiting a long time for this.. let's not waste time then, shall we?"

He then snapped his fingers...

The chair that Gary was sitting in disappeared, making him fall on his ass. Then the rest of the tables and chairs in the room vanished, along with their silverware and plates. The Chandeliers went into the ceiling and the wall candles dimmed. The battlefield was set.

Within minutes, the two 11 year olds were glaring at each other, ready to start.

It was here that Ash began started to speak again, "I only have four partners at the moment. However, I am more than willing to take you in a handicap match of 4 to 6. What do you say?"

Gary just growled, "you sound sure of yourself.. fine, Ashy-boy, have it your way. All the better to humiliate you when I don't even lose one of my pokemon!" he announced confidently, as if it was as sure as the dun coming up tomorrow that he would win.

Ash just chuckled, "Now who's sure of himself..very well.. I will release my pokemon first. Gastly, Out of the shadows!" he yelled to the ceiling.

Within seconds, the Gas Pokemon appeared, sporting its signature grin. "Gaaaastly!"

Gary smirked, believing that Ash hadn't really trained this one since it was in its first stage, "Let's see how that little ball of gas likes this! Eevee, I choose you!"

In a flash, the cute little evolution fox made its appearance, letting out a cute "Eevee!" as it got ready for battle.

"Your flimsy ghost type attacks will have no effect on Eevee here! But we have the perfect attack for you! Let's go Eevee, use Charm!" Gary announced as the battle got underway.

The little fluffball nodded before winking towards Ghastly and letting loose a barrage of hearts aimed right at the ghost type.

Ash merely smirked, "nice touch starting off with a status move. Too bad it's a fairy type attack. You're underestimating my Gastly's strength, which will now be your downfall," he said before calling out, "Gastly, use your newest move, Icy Wind!"

The ghost type chuckled before opening its mouth wide and letting loose a powerful gust of artic wind. The Ice type attack blasted he alluring hearts backwards before destroying them completely, only to continue and hit Eevee head on before it had a chance to dodge.

"Vee!" the little fox yipped as it was blasted off of its feet and backwards.

"Eevee!" Gary yelled with concern as his normal type got back up valiantly. The trainer then growled at Ash and Gastly, "that's the way you want to play it, fine! Let's go, Eevee, Quick Attack!"

"Vee!" The evolution pokemon yelled as it dashed forward with impressive speed.

Ash just frowned as he watched the fox come at them, 'Now Gary should know better than to come at us with a normal type attack... what's he up to?' he thought, then called out , "Gastly, hold your ground!"

Just as Eevee was catching air to reach the floating ghost type, its trainer called out ,"Switch to Bite, NOW!"

Within a second, the little fox pokemon had bared its fangs and chomped into the ghost type, making it wince in pain from the super effective attack.

Ash just chuckled, "simple yet effective strategy there, Gary. Too bad your pokemon is much too weak to do much damage. Gastly? While it's close, Hypnosis."

The first stage ghost type chuckled as its eyes began to glow with a pink colored energy. Being so close, Eevee had no time to react as she inadvertently stared at her opponent's eyes, making her own eyes droop and her body sag. Within moments, the little evolution fox was asleep.

"Eevee!" Gary yelled, "Come on Eevee, wake up! Wake up now!"

It was all in vain as Eevee stayed asleep, snoring away.

Ash just continued to smirk, "this is boring, let's finish this up.. Gastly, Will-o-wisp! And don't let up!"

"Gaaastly!" the ghost yelled as 5 blue and white tufts of flame appeared and began to circle around it almost hauntingly. Then, within seconds, the unearthly flames launched forward towards the sleeping fox and hit dead on, waking it up as well as causing intense pain.

"Vee!" she yelled as she got back on her feet, ready to dodge as more flames came her way, only to be impeded as her entire body was engulf in fire for a second.

"Oh no! Eevee's been burned!" Gary yelled in shock.

As more flames came her way, Eevee tried her best to dodge, but the burn status slowed her down significantly. There was little she could do as Gastly kept launching the blue fireballs at daunting speeds.

"Eevee! Try to launch a ShadowBall!" Gary said desperately. Alas it was all for naught, for as Eevee powered up the ghost attack, a Will-o-Wisp hit dead on, hitting the Shadowball and causing a small explosion. Gary looked on worried as Ash and Gastly remained impassive. Soon, the results were clear as Eevee was on the ground, knocked out.

Seeing this, the auburn-haired boy quickly recalled her and growled, "You got lucky that time. Let's see how you handle this one." he said as he readied his second Pokeball, "let's go, DoDrio!"

In a flash, a large, ostrich-like pokemon with three heads, with each head wearing a different expression, appeared onto the battle field. Upon apprising the new opponent, Ash let out a sigh, 'same tactic but with a stronger pokemon, it seems.. oh well.. hopefully it won't be another disappointment..'

"Gastly.. return for now.. let's let the others have some fun.." he said with a smirk.

Gastly nodded, slightly disappointed that his turn was over, but jolly all the same.

"HAUNTER, COME FORTH!" He yelled, and the second Ghost type appeared, its appearance and laugh causing a shiver to go up their opponent's spines.

After regaining his composure, Gary just glared, "that doesn't scare us! Let's go, Dodrio, Drill Peck!"

The large flightless bird charged forward with incredible speed, all three of its beaks now in a spinning motion.

Ash just shook his head, "really, Gary? And here I was expecting a challenge.. Haunter, Sucker Punch!"

Hauner grinned maliciously as both of his floating hands began to glow with dark aura and fly forward, hitting Dodrio twice in his chest area, a sweet spot for most pokemon.

"Dodrio!" Gary called out as his flying type staggered backwards from the blow. Once it recovered, both trainer and pokemon glared at their opponents, who just stood and floated their respectively in a deadly calm.

Ash then smirked, "maybe I should make the first move this time.." he said before turning to his pokemon, "Haunter, Sludge Bomb!"

The ghost type smirked before opening his mouth wide and letting loose multiple globs of brown, foul smelling sludge from his mouth, right at the offending bird.

"Use your speed to dodge those, then head in with Mirror move, give them a taste of their own medicine!" Gary commanded, ready to turn this around.

Dodrio squawked as it took off, dodging the balls of sludge easily and then jumped, spitting out its own balls of sludge as it mimicked Haunter's attack.

Haunter merely frowned and ...faded away.. causing the attack to miss

"Huh?" Gary said in shock, "What's this?! Where'd he go?!"

Ash just smirked, "He's still here.. think about what you know about Ghost types, gare-bear.."

Gary just growled and looked around the room, "Keep an eye out Dodrio, he could be anywhere."

The bird squawked as its three heads looked in different directions..

..except behind..

"There it is! Behind you! use Peck!" Gary yelled as Haunter made itself visible.

Just as Dodrio turned around, Haunter contorted his face to look like something out of a nightmare, making the bird stop its attack jump away in horror. Ash couldn't help but chuckle in response.

"Dodrio, Drill Peck!" Gary yelled again. He refused to lose another pokemon to his former rival and loser of a trainer.

The bird quickly shook off its fear and lunged at the giggling ghost.

"Enough of these games.." Ash said, "End this with Thunder Punch!"

"WHAT?!" exclaimed Gary with wide eyes

As Dodrio was about to land his attack, Haunter's fists became aglow with electricity and flew forwards. Both attacks landed on the mark, with Haunter's grunt and Dodrio's shriek audible to both trainers.

Haunter floated back to his trainer with a few new bruises, while Dodrio was barely standing after the super effective attack.

"I'll give credit where credit's due, I'm surprised that overgrown turkey is still standing.." Ash said as he observed the bird, "Do you want to continue this or keep fighting a losing battle?"

Gary just growled at him as he looked over his pokemon, he made a decision to call him back for now, "Dodrio, return. Rest for now, I may need you later.."

The young Oak then readied another pokeball, "Alright then, no more Mr. Nice guy. Let's still how you like this!" he said as he threw his third pokeball, "Arcanine, to the battlefront!"

The Fire type made his appearance and let out a mighty howl, ready for battle.

Ash nodded in appreciation, "It seems as though you are finally taking this seriously. Excellent. "

Gary didn't retort, surprisingly, and instead looked to his pokemon, "Arcanine, I want that Ghost down for the count! Flamethrower!"

The canine barked in affirmative and sent a powerful looking flamethrower towards the still floating ghost type, ready to annihilate anything in its way.

"Counter that with Sludge Bomb!" Ash called out immediately. Haunter let loose dozens of huge gobs of sludge right at the incoming flames. The results was an explosion in the middle of the field.

When the smoke cleared, Haunter had once again disappeared.

Gary growled, annoyed at the ghost's disappearing tricks, "Keep a look out, Arcanine.. we won't let this fake and his cheap tricks get us"

Arcanine barked in agreement as he kept his eyes and ears sharp. Too bad ghosts don't have a sense of smell...

"To your right!"

The fire dog turned at his trainer's command.. only to come face the face with one of the scariest faces he had ever seen in his short life. It reminded him of a gruesome scene from one of those ' movies' his master watches. It made him tense up in fright before jumping backwards with a loud whimper.

Ash couldn't help but laugh out loud at the pup's reaction, "honestly Gary, falling for the same trick twice? How laughable.."

His old rival growled, though if he concentrated a bit, he could feel the embarrassment and humiliation coming off him. And they were just getting started..

/-/-/-/-/-/-/

In the reverse world, looking through one of many mirrors to the overworld, was the king himself, Giratina.

The Anti-matter pokemon watched with silent glee as his new Chosen slowly decimated and humiliated his former rival. Yes.. he had made a fine choice.. and with the power of the ghosts by his side, the boy's potential was possibly limitless..

"GIRATINA!"

The ghost dragon was broken from his good mood as a familiar voice echoed through his world.

Another golden mirror appeared, revealing the form of a very angry looking Arceus.

"Ah..hello father.. to what what do I owe thi-"

"Shut it! I don't have time for your Tauros shit! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY CHOSEN?!"

"hmm?" Asked Giratina with an innocent-looking tilt of his head, "whatever do you mean?"

"You know EXACTLY what I mean, you outcast!" Arceus roared, "You corrupted my chosen! I sense your power signature all through him! Do you realize what you may have done?!"

Giratina merely chuckled, "you really should be thanking me, father.. I saved his life. Without me, your precious chosen one would have surely killed himself from extreme grief and loss.. not that you bothered to be there in his time of need like I was.." he said with a slight sneer.

"ENOUGH!" The god Pokemon yelled, "Thanks to your selfish actions, the council must now start from square one! We must find a new, untainted chosen before the dark times come, which will be very soon.."

Giratina just shrugged, "No concern of mine anyway. Like you said father, I'm an outcast, no longer a member of the official council.. not at the moment anyway.. " he said with a smirk, "Anyways, I wouldn't call Ashura 'tainted'.. he still has a relatively pure heart, it just has a darker, and more mischievous feel to it. If you ever need to borrow him to help with these so called 'dark times' we'd be happy to oblige.. for a price.." the dragon's smirk grew wider

Arceus growled, "You will regret what you have do, I will make sure of it.." he said before he disappeared, the golden mirror shattering into nothing..

Giratina merely stared at the spot the mirror was for a moment longer before going back to watch the battle. He made it just in time to see Arcanine fall..

\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\

Gary hastily recalled Arcanine back to his ball as he fell unconscious. Still, this battle was a little more evenly matched if the few marks on Haunter were anything to go by. Still, the ghost type looked like it still rarin' to go.

Ash just smirked, "Well? Do you want to keep going? Or do the smart thing and give up?"

"No way am I giving up!" the young Oak said defiantly, "You must be cheating somehow. No way you've gotten this good legitimately in only a few months!"

Ash just shrugged, "you'd be surprised by what I can do given the right motivation and circumstances. But enough chit chat, let's continue, shall we?" He then turned to Haunter, "come back bud, take a rest.

Haunter nodded as he casually floated behind Ash, not even looking tired.

The pale boy then smirked, "let's turn this up a bit.. GENGAR! Come Forth!"

The large Shadow Pokemon appeared.. right in front of Gary's face.

"Gah!" he yelled out, nearly falling to the floor, before growling at the chuckling ghosts and their trainer.

"Well?" Ash questioned, "we don't have all day, Gare-bear.. send out your next pokemon!"

The brown haired boy scowled before sending out his next fighter, "GO, Electabuzz! Make this ghost extra crispy!"

The electric pokemon came out sparking brightly, adding much needed light to the dim surroundings.

Ash and Gengar frowned for a moment as they observed the electric type, before smirking. Could this one be a more worthy opponent?

"Electabuzz, Thunderbolt! Let's go!" Gary commanded, causing the whirring pokemon to spark more violently before shooting off a large bolt of lightning towards the ghost.

"Counter that with Dark Pulse!" Ash called out.

Gengar smirked before sending out a concentrated "O" shaped waved of dark energy. The two attacks met in the middle, causing another miniature explosion.

Once the smoke cleared, Gengar was gone, and a smiling Ash just stood there.

Gary just growled, "we're not falling for that again! Electabuzz, Shockwave!"

Electabuzz nodded as it charged up and sent out an unavoidable wave of electricity, scoring a hit on the hiding ghost and shocking it.

"Gotcha! " Gary said with way more enthusiasm than necessary, while Ash remained deadly calm.

"Now, follow up with Fire Punch!" the Auburn haired boy said as he gained his confidence back.

Electabuzz rushed forward towards the stationary ghost, his right fist balling and lit aflame.

"Shadow Punch!" Ash called out. Gengar nodded as his own fist became aglow with ghostly power.

Both attacks, met their mark, with Electabuzz being sent flying backwards and Gengar floating away with a deep grimace.

"Come on, Electabuzz, stand up!" Gary called out to his pokemon. The electric type sat up and shook his head to clear it of the effects of that punch.

"Let's test out a new strategy.." Ash said with a smirk, "Gengar, Ice Punch!"

After a quick recovery, Gengar flew over and readied an icy fist.

As Electabuzz looked up, he saw the ghost type over him with the scariest smile he had ever seen, making him freak out and yelp.

"DODGE THAT!"

Thanks to the twinge of ear implanted in his heart, Electabuzz hesitated just for a second. It would cost him dearly. The Ice Punch hit straight on, causing a freezing effect and thus slowing him down considerably.

"Follow up with Toxic!" Ash said with an almost evil grin on his face. Gengar shared this grin as he shot out globs of purple poisonous sludge, nailing the still sluggish Electabuzz and inflicting massive damage. Miraculously, the electric type was able to stand up, only to fall to one knee as a wave of purple washed over him.

"Shit! He's been poisoned.." Gary grimaced.

Ash just chuckled and pointed, "now..finish this with Hex!"

Gengar's eyes began to glow ominously as he sent an almost invisible wave of dark red energy towards his poisoned opponent. Almost immediately, Electabuz screamed in pain as the power of the ghost move effected him greatly, making him thrash around and fall to the ground as he tried to escape the painful attack.

Gary could only watch on in shock as his pokemon suffered.

"Call him back, Gary.."

When the brown-haired boy looked at his old rival, he saw the boy glaring at him with those purple eyes of his, "despite my attitude, I don't like seeing pokemon in this state. It's your choice.. Call him back or watch him suffer.."

Gary grumbled softly and closed his eyes tightly as he reluctantly called Electabuzz back to its pokeball, ending the effects of the attack.

The ghostly boy nodded in respect, "good decision.."

In the mean time, Gary was wondering what to do next, 'I thought this would be easy to defeat him..I haven't even taken out one of his pokemon yet...' he then looked up at Ash and Gengar, 'I can't use Nidoking ...his poison type moves would be negated and his ground type moves would have no effect thanks to Levitate..I have one choice then..'

"Blastoise! I choose you!"

The fully evolved started made itself known as it appeared, roaring its name across the room, "BLASTOISE!"

Gengar smirked, ready for another round as it chuckled towards its oversized opponent.

"I think i'll take the first move this time, " Ash said with a smirk that was becoming insufferable to the brown-haired boy... strange irony there...

"Gengar, Dark Pulse!"

"Hydro-pump!"

The attacks met in the middle, battling for dominance before imploding on each other. As the smoke cleared, the voice of the ghostly trainer called out, "Shadow Punch!"

Through the smoke, a huge fist made of shadow energy blasted through the smoke cloud and hit the giant turtle sending him backwards. Miraculously, it still remained on its feet as it growled towards the other side.

When the smoke cleared, Gengar was gone again..

"Goddamnit!" Gary yelled in frustration, "Stay out in the open ya fucking coward! Scared to face me up front?!"

Ash just chuckled, "of course not. But what's the fun in that? It's only natural for a ghost to use the shadows to their advantage, so why fight nature?"

"whatever!" Gary yelled, "We got somethin' for that little trick! Blastoise rapid spin/Hydropump combo!"

In an instant, Blastoise retreated into his shell and began to spin rapidly around, he then started spraying more high pressure water from his cannons . As the water went everywhere, more shadow punches came out of the darkness of the room, seemingly from everywhere.. each one hitting their mark and throwing the spinning turtle off balance.

Fortunately for Gary, the water combo wasn't a complete miss, as Gengar was hit several times by the Hydro Pump attack, which would result in him being seen for a moment before diving back into the shadows and finding a new spot.

This pattern continued for a few more minutes, before Gary had finally had enough, "Blastoise! next time it appears, stop and use surf!"

As soon as Gengar had been hit again and appeared, Blastoise stopped his spin and shot a massive wave at the area where Gengar was. Everyone was nearly swept up in the wave, including Ash and Gary.

Once the surf attack subsided, Gengar was fully visible and panting, obviously from the damage it had taken so far.

"Now," Shouted the brown-haired trainer, "let's keep this going! Hydropump dead ahead!"

Blastoise nodded before cocking its cannons and shooting two powerful torrents of water right at the ghost.

"Dark pulse to counter! Dodge if you have to!" Ash yelled. There was no time to escape to the shadows, so they would have to use more conventional methods. Using offensive moves in a defensive situation is a good start. The Dark Pulse would slow down the incoming attack if not stop it all together.

By the time Gengar had shot of the dark attack, it was already close to him. Still, he was able to slow down the attack to a crawl and give himself enough time to dodge the attack with a polevault style flip, and was now hovering higher in the air.

"Dark Pulse again, follow up with Toxic!" the ghost trainer commanded.

While hovering, Gengar nodded and shot off another Dark Pulse attack, aiming straight for Blastoise's head.

"let's borrow their strategy. Blastoise, hydropump to counter!"

Once again, water met darkness, only the situation was flip-flopped. Unfortunately for Gary, the results were not the same. Because of Dark pulse's proximity to the water type, fatigue, and Gengar's higher point of view, the Dark Pulse attack overwhelmed Hydropump this time, and reached the turtle much quicker, giving it no time to dodge.

"BLAST!" The water starter yelped in pain as the Dark pulse pummeled him

"Blastoise!" Gary yelled in worry. The tide of the battle had once again turned against him, and Blastoise was paying dearly for it.

The menacing ghost didn't stop though, for as soon as the Dark Pulse attack ended, he spat out a wave of the poisonous purple sludge, stinging Blastoise in the eyes and causing him to fall back in pain as he struggled to get the sludge off of his face.

"Blast yourself with water, quick!" Gary yelled desperately. His pokemon was in a vulnerable state and it would only get worse.

"End this with Ice Punch!" The raven haired boy yelled with a smirk, ready to end this battle and put his rival in his place. As Blastoise was still blinded, Gengar raced forward with a fist of ice-blue energy.

"Withdraw!" Gary called out as a last ditch effort. despite the pain he was in, Blastoise managed to withdraw into his shell just as the attack hit, causing a small amount of ice to form on the shell. Thus, the not so effective attack was further nullified.

Ash growled, "I didn't want to do this, but it appears I have no choice..Gengar, Hex!"

"NO!" Gary called out, all too late.

The ghost type's eyes glowed maliciously, soon followed by Blastoise's entire body. Soon, the shell was spinning around erratically and bouncing off the walls, as if to try and escape the pain. After a few tense moments, the shell suddenly stopped and the glow faded. Blastoise popped of its shell and slumped to the ground, unconscious..

With a shaky hand, Gary recalled his starter and grit his teeth. He couldn't believe how strong these ghosts were. Now he had a decision to make.

'All I have left are Dodrio and Nidoking. Dodrio is still hurt and Nidoking doesn't stand a chance against a pokemon like Gengar..'

"Let me guess.." Ash suddenly piped up, "You're out of truly usable pokemon. That Dodrio of yours is in too bad of a condition, and your last pokemon probably has a severe type disadvantage.. am I right?"

Gary growled , and stiffly nodded, making Ash chuckle, "alright then, I'll introduce you to a new player. My last pokemon.."

He then called out for all to hear, "ROTOM! COME FORTH!"

Almost instantly, the little orange spirit became visible and started zipping around the room, full of energy as always.

"W-what is that?" Gary said to himself as he pulled out his pokedex,

'No Data available.'

That very statement made the poor boy shiver as it brought back bad flashbacks to his mind of the Viridian Gym incident. Still, he steeled himself as he observed the pokemon.

'Let's see.. it's obviously a ghost type.. and going by how it looks, it may be a fire or electric type as well..'

"let me introduce you to my best friend and starter, Rotom. He's a ghost/electric type pokemon that can possess appliances and sap them of their electrical energy." Ash said, before frowning, "of course.. you've met Rotom before, before he was a Rotom.." he then glared, "before he died.."

"What are you talking abo-" the young Oak started before he stopped short, thinking about what Ash just said, 'best friend.. starter...electric type.. it can't be..'

"A-are you telling me that that thing is.."

"That's right.." Ash finished for him, "Rotom was once my beloved Pikachu."

This left Gary stunned. Obviously his grandfather had left that little tidbit out, "b-but.. I don't understand.. how.."

"Thanks to your grandfather and my so called friends and mother, Pikachu was left with fatal injuries that could not be healed. If it weren't for some.. otherworldly interventions, I would've lost him forever.."

"..no way.." Gary said above a whisper, still shocked at the story. Was that the truth? did his grandfatehr really do that? Had his own friends and mother done that? It seemed unbelievable..

Still, this wasn't the time to dwell on his rival's sob story. Seeing a small chance at a comeback, he readied his next pokeball

"Whether that is the truth or not, I'm definitely going to have to talk to Gramps about this. But until then I have a battle to fight! Nidoking, let's go!"

In a flash the large poison/ground type appeared and let out a guttural roar. It looked at its tiny opponent and snorted, confident that this would be an easy win.

Ash smirked, this would be interesting, "Heh, so your ground type attacks would have no effect before o Rotom's levitate, and My electric type moves would have no effect thanks to typing.."

"Looks like it!" Gary said as he shared the same smirk, "But we got more tricks up our sleeve. Nidoking, use Poison Sting!"

The giant pokemon opened its maw and hot off dozens of purple, needle-like projectiles towards the tiny ghost.

"Stop them with Discharge, follow up with Astonish!" Ash commanded.

With not a moment to spare, Rotom released dozens of powerful sparks towards the poison needles, stopping them in their place and sending them dropping to the ground. It then rushed forward and appeared right in front of Nidoking's face before letting loose a loud, startling shout, casing the Drill Pokemon to flinch in surprise and step back.

"Don't let it get to you! Use Ice beam while it's close!" Gary shouted

Nidoking immediately heeded its trainer's words and powered up an orb of frosty energy in its mouth before shooting it forward towards Rotom.

"Dodge that!' Ash urged. Rotom immediately flew upwards to avoid the full brunt of the attack, but was still brush and took damage as its lightning bolt appendages were hit.

"Keep up the Ice beams!" Gary shouted. In reality, it was probably the only attack they had that had the potential to do significant damage to the little ghost. He couldn't use EarthPower obviously, and Horn Attack would have no effect either. If only they had perfected Megahorn..

Soon, Rotom found himself dodging Ice beam after Ice beam as the large ground type fired them off without showing signs of slowing down. Thanks to his secondary typing, the electric ghost couldn't use the shadows to his advantage like the others did. He was too much like a light bulb to do that.

Luckily, Ash had an idea. "Alright, Rotom. Sweep in low and use Astonish again, follow up with Confusion!"

The little electric type smirked as he flipped in the air before sweeping just above the floor towards Nidoking, still dodging any low flying Ice beams. Soon, he was once again in the Drill Pokemon's face and shouted loudly, causing the fierce looking beast to stop his attack and once again, flinch backwards.

"Snap out of it!" Gary urged

It was too late, however, as Rotom's eyes began to glow, and several bright yellow, floating orbs formed around him before rushing towards Nidoking. Unable to dodge in time, the attack hit dead on, and the behemoth's eyes suddenly became glazed over.

"Nidoking?" The boy questioned as his pokemon began to stagger around as if he was drunk, "Come on bud, snap out of it. Ice beam!"

The Poison type didn't seem to be listening though, as he began to beat himself on the head, injuring himself.

"Dark Pulse!" Ash called out. Rotom smirked and immediately replied as it formed a dark orb in his appendages and launched it forwards in a dark wave.

"LOOK OUT! Gary yelled in vain to his pokemon, who wasn't even aware that he was being attacked. The dark type attack hit straight on and sent the large pokemon to his knees, as well as snapping him out of his confusion.

The boys looked at each other and grinned. One final attack to take it all.

"ICE BEAM!"

"DARK PULSE!"

Almost simultaneously, the attacks were launched towards their opponent, both passing each other, and hitting their designated target.

Both pokemon called out their respective names as they were hit and took on damage. How much was uncertain as both pokemon were pushed back violently.

For a moment, the two stared each other down..before smirking .

..Then, Nidoking fell to the ground, exhausted.

"Nidoking!" Gary said as he rushed to check on him.

His pokemon looked up at him and gave him a smile, one that the boy couldn't help but return, "You did great, bud.. take a nice long rest.." he said as he returned him to his ball.

"Gary?"

When the boy looked up at the call of his name, he saw something that he never thought he would see again. His rival, smiling at him.. a creepy smile, but a smile nonetheless, and not the smirk that he had been wearing for most of the battle.

"Tell me, what do you think of my new friends?.." he asked him as Rotom hovered next to him

Gary stood up and sighed, "They're pretty freaking strong, not to mention hard to hit. Maybe I was wrong about you Ashy-boy.." he said with a grumble, "Still, don't think I won't get stronger. You just caught me off guard, but I've learned from this little encounter and I'll use what I've learned for future battles, including our rematch. Believe me when I say I won't underestimate you again."

Ash could only chuckle, "And believe me Gary when I say, I look forward to it." He then frown, "But for now, I think you've overstayed your welcome.

That said, the boy once again snapped his fingers, and the Brown haired boy found himself hovering in mid air, before being rushed out of the room, and then the Tower, by an otherworldly force.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Once Gary was outside after being forcefully expelled from the Tower, he saw that it was already morning.

Still, a lot of thoughts now plagued his mind as he ran to the Center. He thought about the battle, and how.. even with a handicap, Ash was able to pretty much dominate him in every match-up.

There was also the story Ash told him about Pikachu becoming Rotom. Was he telling the truth. Did Pikachu truly... die because of something his grandfather took part in. And if it were true, how in the reverse would did Pikachu become a Rotom?

Ash mentioned something about an otherworldly intervention...but what did that mean?

The whole thing made his head hurt.

Maybe he should ask Grandpa about what really happened that day...

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

 **AAAANNNNDDD DONE!**

 **PHEW! This was a tough chapter to write for some reason... maybe because I just don't have the free time I used to have to write. But don't worry guys. I'll still be updating as fast as I can, it'll just be a tad slower than before. That goes for all of my stories of course.**

 **PLease Review and Follow if you like it.**

 **Flames will be sent to the North Pole, and WON'T get a gift from Santa Clause.**


	3. Chapter 3: First Confrontation

**Its GHOST TIME again!**

 **Who's ready for chapter 3?!**

 **...Come on say something...**

 ***Cough* anyway, in this one I am planning on staging a very interesting confrontation. So le'ts hope this one is good, hmm?**

 **Ok, no more stalling, time to rock**

 **DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN POKEMON!**

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

To those who know and have met him, Professor Oak is a very kind and benevolent person who only wants to see the greater good done for both pokemon and humans alike. He is a man dedicated to his work, and will fight tooth and nail to protect his loved ones. It was these attributes that explained why he and Ash got along so well.

However, as shown on that day at the Indigo conference, everyone has a dark side. He along with 3 others, destroyed a young boy that had proven to be an incompetent, though interesting trainer. Still, despite how terrible it sounded, it was for the greater good. More than likely, the boy would've failed in his fruitless quest, and brought down the Professor and all of Pallet Town with him. Even his own mother and friends agreed. So no more was said..

Another thing about the Professor is that he did not like to be crossed. If he made a decision or a command, and it was not acted on, or if the opposite was done, that was the quickest way to get under his skin. For instance, if Professor Oak suspends the license of a trainer, and that trainer goes behind his back and gets another license or begins training again, be sure that said trainer was in deep trouble.

And that was what was about to happen..

"WHAT!?" screamed Professor Oak as he was talking with his grandson, who sighed on the other end of the phone.

 _"It's true Gramps, Ash is a pokemon trainer again. And the thing is, he's really strong.. he managed to beat some of my strongest team members i handicap match._ " Gary explained, inwardly wincing at his own admittance of that.

The professor growled, "how can this be?..after what happened that day.." he mumbled, before closing his eyes in deep thought, 'if Gary's telling the truth, how could Ash have gotten so strong within only a few months time? Maybe we were too quick to judge? ..No.. no, something else must be at play here.."

 _"There's one other thing, Gramps.."_ Gary spoke up again, this time with a dead serious look on his face, _"during our battle, Ash mentioned something about Pikachu dying..and how you had a hand in it.."_ his face then twisted to one of sadness, anger, and maybe hope, _"Please tell me that isn't true!"_

The older Oak just shook his head with a groan, "Gary, there were events that happened that day that I hope you will never witness or experience.. Events that you are too young to understand right now.." he started, "Mrs. Ketchum, Ash's friends, and I did what was necessary in order to drive home a point to Ash that his frivolous dream would never come true due to his weaknesses. Unfortunately, during the struggle and intense drama, Pikachu, the only one that still believed in Ash, was fatally injured. It was no one's intention for that to happen, but it did. Collectively, we decided that it was best to wash our hands of the matter." He then took a deep breath to steady his nerves, "We later found out that Ash took Pikachu and left, vanished without a trace.."

Now, if the Professor thought that his explanation would be enough to satisfy Gary, he was wrong. The boy was mortified and shocked. His grandfather, the man he looked up to all his life, pretty much just confessed to killing, or at least helping in killing an innocent Pokémon because it loved its trainer too much. Hearing the story, Gary couldn't help but wonder.. why didn't the same thing happen to him? Would they do that to him if he failed to many times?

"Now Gary," The professor spoke up, "I don't want you to worry about Ash or anything he said. I also don't want you to think that what happened to him will happen to you. You are my grandson, and a much more competent trainer. I would never do that to my own flesh and blood."

 _"B-but what about Mrs. Ketchum? You said she was involved too!"_ he urged, _"How is that any different?"_

The Professor frowned, "like I said, you are much more competent of a trainer.." he then glared at his grandson, "though the fact that you say you lost to him with an advantage is.. troublesome news.."

Gary started sweating profusely and nervously. His grandpa just said that he would never do anything like that to him, but still...

"So here's what I'm going to do," Oak started again, "I am going to gather up Misty and Brock, along with Mrs. Ketchum, and we are going to look into this." He said, "If what you say is true, then I will have to assess the boy's new strength, what he is doing and how he managed to defeat you. Based on the results, we'll decided what is to be done with him, either do a repeat intervention to get him out of there, or something else.. " he explained "do you think you can stick around Lavender Town for another week?"

" _Umm.. sure.."_ Gary said, a little uneasy, " _but.. what will you do?"_

"If i revoke a trainer's license, it's for good reason. So when I hear that said trainer got a new license somehow, I take offense to it." He said with a glare, "also, going by his past record and performances, I don't see how Ash could've gotten so strong so quickly. I believe he may be doing something illegal. What kind of Pokemon was he using?"

 _"A-All ghost types.."_ Gary answered, " _Gastly, Haunter, Gengar, and one I've never seen before.. a Rotom.."_ mentioning the name made the boy's face turn white, " _H-he claimed that it was Pikachu in ghost form.. like.. a reincarnation..."_

That statement alarmed the Professor, "Th-That's impossible!" he stated, then groaned, "Obviously the boy has lost his mind and has somehow gained control of the Lavender Tower ghosts.." he then nodded his head resolutely, "Gary, the others and I will be there within the week. We must put a stop to this. I will see you there."

With that, the line went dead as the man hung up.

Gary let out a long sigh as he leaned back into his head heavily. He didn't know what to believe. He didn't know which side to take. And now, he may have just complicated things by getting his Grandpa involved.

"Fine mess you've gotten yourself into, Gary.." he said to himself. First, he lost a handicap battle to his rival who was supposed to be gone for good, then he gets his grandpa, one of the most influential people in Kanto, involved in what may become a very nasty confrontation. Especially if Gramps brings them along.. the very people that caused Ash to disappear in the first place..

"Great Arceus, what have I started.."

Meanwhile, back at the Tower, while Ash, Haunter, and Gengar were discussing the battle, Gastly and Rotom came in, looking slightly frantic.

Their behavior made Ash frown, "what's the matter with you two?"

 _"Ash.."_ Rotom said, _"we may have a serious problem.."_

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

The week passed in relative peace, with no signs of activity within the tower, at least from the outside.. On the inside, Ash and his ghostly friends were busy getting ready for the 'reunion' at the end of the week. Rather than be angry, the ghost master in training was actually excited and happy. He would show he 'friends' how strong he was, and would make sure they all have a .. screaming good time.. MUAHAHAHA!

...that was bad..

...anyway..

By the end of the week, as promised, The Professor had arrived at Lavender Town with Misty, Brock, and Mrs. Ketchum. Their goal was to identify if this so called 'Ghost Master' was Ash, and if so.. to rate his strength, in battle and see how he got so strong. They would also make sure he was still mentally sound, as from what Gary had told him, it was also possible that the boy had gone insane. Then, they would make a decision of what to do next. Either way, the Professor was aiming to once again revoke the boy's license, which he no doubt got illegally.

'I along with very few others in Kanto can give out a valid Trainer's license, so no doubt that Ash is somehow training pokemon illegally, and I'll be damned to let it keep happening'

As soon as they got into town, they met up with Gary at the Pokemon Center.

Seeing his grandson, Professor Ok immediately pulled the boy into a hug, "Thank you for alerting us to this problem Gary. This is something that needs to be addressed before it gets out of hand," he said, earning nods of agreement from the others.

"Humph.." Misty grunted, "I still have my doubts that this is even Ash were talking about. No way that little pipsqueak could've gotten that strong..."

"Which is why we're going to investigate," Brock responded with a serious look on his face, "If this is Ash we're talking about, chances are that he used some illegal or unfriendly means to get that much power, or to even get a pokemon that powerful to listen to him."

"Correct," the Professor said, "remember Charizard? It stopped obeying Ash once it realized how weak of a trainer he was. No doubt that the same thing will happen with any other strong pokemon he may come across."

With those thoughts in mind, and a rough plan, They all headed towards the infamous Tower.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

With a loud and eerie creak, the front doors to the Lavender Tower opened.

And with only slight hesitation, the group of five entered the ghostly building.

As they looked around the dark, dimly lit corridors, Misty and Brock had to suppress a shiver. Their past experiences with this place were not pleasant, they almost lost their .. friend that night. And now, here they were again, more than likely to once again, 'rescue' him, either from the ghosts of the Tower, or from just being a plain idiot. At least that's what they told themselves.

Gary looked around just as nervously as they started to venture up the tower, and for good reason. He was the only one that knew of Ash's newfound power, and somehow, he had a funny feeling that he hadn't even seen half of it. He also wondered if he had done the right thing in letting his grandpa know. 'Oh Arceus..' he thought with a shutter, 'Ash is gonna kill me if he finds out..'

 _'I've already found out..'_ A familiar, yet deadly sounding voice echoed in his mind.

"Gah!" the auburn boy yelped as he looked around frantically.

"Hmm? Gary, what's the matter?" The Professor asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Uhh.." the young trainer mumbled as he confirmed no one was there. Still he was visibly shaken, "N-nothing..I'm alright." he said, putting on a brave smile.

Misty just snickered, "what's the matter? Big bad Gary afraid of a little old tower?"

The boy just growled at her, "hey knock it off! You weren't the one that faced Ash last time so have no idea what he's capable of!"

The redhead just scoffed, "Please.. this is Ash we're talking about. Weak little trainer with the big mouth and bigger ego? I'm starting to think that being in the place too long or too often. It's messing with your brain." she said as she waved him off and continued up the stairs.

Gary could only glare at her retreating form. How did Ash put up with someone like that for more than a year? She's got a lot of nerve talking about someone having a big mouth and ego.

As the group made their way up the tower, they couldn't help but notice the eerie silence that seemed to reign.

"This is weird..." Brock whispered..

"I know..where are all the ghost pokemon..?" Misty whispered.

During all of this, Deliah was in her own world, wondering how this would turn out. If what Gary said was true, then within a few moments she would be seeing her son again, her baby. Ever since that day, she had been regretting what she had done. She had always been easy to sway to other people's opinions. So when the great Professor Oak and two gym leaders, all of which were great friends of hers and her son's friends and knew him best, said that he wasn't going to make it as a trainer and needed to quit, she believed them... not right away, but after some coaxing, yes... and she felt terrible for it.

'Why do I have to be so weak..' she thought with tears in her eyes, 'I should've been there for my son... I should've..I could've...'

 _'You could've done a lot.. but it's too late for that..'_

Hearing the voice, the guilty mother stopped dead in her tracks, going wide eyed, and looked around. Surprisingly, it was Misty who was the first to notice, "Mrs. Ketchum, are you alright?"

"Hmm?" The older woman uttered as she snapped back to reality, "umm.. I'm fine.."

"You sure?" asked Brock, who also noticed.

"mhmm.. I.. I guess I'm just nervous.. about seeing my son again.." she said quietly, the guilt very evident in her voice.

A hand was placed on her shoulder as she lowered her head, looking back up, she saw it was Brock, who was smiling, "don't worry. If this is really Ash that we're dealing with, then we'll snap him out of this 'ghost master' charade. Then, maybe this time you can bring him home. I'm sure Pallet Town will understand and welcome him back."

Delia sighed and nodded, "hopefully.. or they might shun him more for his actions here.. especially if they're as illegal as the Professor said.."

"Guys!" Gary called to them from ahead, "come on, we need to get to the top floor!"

Seeing his point, they nodded and began following him again, higher up into the tower.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Within half an hour's time, the group had made it to the top floor. At first, it didn't look any different than the other floors, until Gary pointed out a door to the side.

"Here," he said, pointing, "this leads to another part of the Tower."

With some notable caution, everyone headed into the next corridor, which ultimately led to the kitchen.

Just as Gary was on his first trip here, the others were amazed at the pristine state of the kitchen. It was practically spotless. No cobwebs, no bugs.. and working lights!

"Oh my.." Mrs. Ketchum uttered in slight awe, while the Professor nodded, "certainly appears to be someone living quarters up here.."

"Just be on the lookout," Gary warned, "this is where Ash and his ghoul troop started messin' with me" he said as he peered around the room nervously.

His comment, however, only made a certain red head curious, "what did he do?"

The auburn-haired boy sighed "He made some illusion of a creepy ghost girl from hell..After that, I think I passed out, cause the next thing I knew, I was in this huge dining room... with Ash"

Listening to the story, Brock smiled, "well that simplifies things. Chances are, we find the dining room you were in, we find Ash!" he said happily. The sooner they found the boy, the better.

"Allow me to help.." A young, familiar, yet sinister sounding voice echoed, making everyone turn their heads every which way in search of the source.

"Is that.."

A strong, mysterious wind suddenly blew through the room, making everyone shield their eyes for a second, which was all that was needed. When they opened them again, in front of the group stood the person they'd been looking for. He was paler, a little taller, and wasn't wearing a hat. And.. were his eyes purple? Still, something told them that this was indeed Ash.

Gary started to sweat profusely as the ghostly boy glared at the group, his purple eyes almost glowing. But then, Ash did something he wasn't expecting him to do..

..he smiled..

well, it was more of a smirk, but still.. was he not angry?

"I've been expecting you all," he said, his voice still partially echoing, "Now the fun can truly start," he chuckled darkly before snapping his fingers. Out of nowhere, the Ominous Wind started up again, this time sweeping up the entire group, and somehow transferring them to a new location..

..The dining room.. and it was everything Gary remembered..

As the others looked on in awe at the size, neatness, and decorative setting of the room, Ash stepped towards them.

"Please.." he said as he flourish his hand and bowed slightly, "Have a seat." Just as he said that, 5 fives seat suddenly moves backwards from the table, seemingly on their own, in a way that almost invited them to sit.

With some hesitation and, much to Ash's amusement, fear, the betraying party slowly took a seat n each of the mentioned chairs and scooted towards the table.

"Now then," the young trainer said as he took his own seat at the head of the table, "What's shall we discuss? Since you've gone through all the trouble to not only track me down, but to come all this way to see me.. it must be for a good reason.." he then smirked, "Are you all perhaps ready to amend for your mistakes and beg for my forgiveness?" he chuckled. That would be nice..

"NO WAY IN HELLL!" Misty yelled out, forcing Brock to hold her back from getting out of her seat.

After that momentary outburst, Professor Oak coughed, "Actually, Ash.. we have a different, more serious reason for coming here.." he started, " You see, when I heard from my grandson that he had run into you in Lavender Town, saying that not only were you a trainer again, but had beaten him in battle, I was shocked in more than one way.."

The man then narrowed his eyes as he glared at the pale boy, "firstly I was shocked at how you were able to beat him in battle with a new team of Pokemon. I was shocked at how strong these Pokemon would have to be in order to beat Gary''s strongest team... but mostly importantly," he growled, "I was shocked that you had somehow become a trainer again in the first place.."

Throughout the old man's speech, Ash sat forward in his seat, with his elbows on the table and his hands in a loose fist in front of his mouth. His expression was that of indifference.

"Tell me,," The man sad with a deep glare, " Who did you con to give you a bogus license? Or do you even have one? And how did you get the Tower ghosts on your side? Did you capture them? And how are they so strong? Did you perhaps.."

Ash seemed to patiently listen to the old man as he continued to riddle off questions and ridiculous accusations of how he got so strong. All the while, within his mind, he and his team were conversing about this whole situation..

 _"I say we show them all the door.."_ Said Gengar, _"They bring nothing but ill intent.."_

 _"That much is obvious.."_ said Haunter in a retort..

 _"The old man talks too much."_ Gastly commented, making them all chuckle.

 _"I dont' know... Your mom might be salvagable.." said_ Rotom, _"I think she feels guilty for what she did and helped do to you.."_

 _"Be that as it may.."_ Ash said to them, _"I cannot forgive any of them for what they did and tried to do.. not yet anyway.."_

"Well?! Are you going to answer my questions or not?!" The Professor yelled. Not only did he not like being ignored, but he also didn't like the way the boy was just staring at them. It was .. for the lack of a better term.. fucking creepy!

Ash just smiled thinly and let out a dark chuckle, "pardon my manners, Professor..I'll be happy to answer your questions.. the ones that aren't complete bullshit, anyway."

The old man growled, but begrudgingly nodded, gesturing for the boy to continue.

"You see, Professor.. after and my so called 'family'.. stripped me of everything I held dear, I came here to Lavender Tower with one purpose in mind.." he let out a sigh at the memory of that day, "to bury my best friend.. the only one that stood in my corner.."

They all nodded solemnly. The group had been genuinely shocked when they found out what happened to Pikachu, and that Ash had disappeared with his body shortly after that. Not wanting to suffer from that kind of grief, they all collectively decided to bury the memory... until now.

"Once I arrived, the ghosts heard my cries and felt my sorrow. Being that we've met before and befriended each other, they wanted to help. So, using a complicated process that only the ghost understand, they were able to bring Pikachu back to me.. in a way.."

As Gary suppressed shiver at the explanation, the others looked on curiously. Pikachu was alive? How? The Professor just continued to glare as his mind automatically went to how that was possible. Was there an undead Pikachu walking around now? despicable!

He humphed, "That's impossible, but we'll get into that later. A more important question is.. how do you have a license right now? Especially after I revoked it myself"

Ash just smirked and chuckled, "You're not the only sponsor in Kanto, you know. The old CareTaker of the Tower along with the local Nurse Joy pulled some strings and get me a sort of.. restricted license." he explained, "The restriction is that for now, I cannot Leave Lavender Town. However, once I prove to the League that I am a very capable and competent trainer, that will change, and your decision to revoke my license will be overturned. Isn't that wonderful?" he asked, smiling

"Hah!" then man retorted, "fat chance! The League won't listen to your cries after the report I turned in.. speaking of which, how did you and your ghost get so strong in such a short time. Even after your year of training before the Indigo League you were just another rookie trainer, you had your strengths but you were stupid and naive. Now, from what I've heard from Gary and other trainers, you've earned yourself a reputation as some kind of 'Ghost Master.' I don't see how that is possible."

Once again Ash nodded, "The ghost of Lavender Tower were already relatively strong, as was I once the bullshit was gone. After my arrival, an agreement was reached, and we decided to help each other bring out our true potential. And that's what we've been doing ever since. We test our strength on trainers that come here in search of ghost types. So far, very few trainers have beaten us."

At that, Brock and Misty let out a snort. To think that their former friend was that strong now was inconceivable. Gary and Delia stayed quiet for their own reasons. Apparently, The Professor also had his doubts as he glared at the boy.

"I find this all very hard to believe.." He said, "I still believe that you are doing something illegal here.. something that may hurt the ecosystem and the ghosts here, and I plan on exposing it."

"I see.. and what good will that do? Trying to pump up your already overinflated reputation? Or maybe save it from the hit it will take if I ever tell the public what happened?" he asked with a smirked, making the man growl, 'And believe me, I do plan on making my story public once I gain the League's interest. It's only a matter of time.."

"Enough!" he yelled, standing up and pulling out a pokeball, "You will do no such thing, and I will see to that! Right now, I want to see for myself just how 'strong' you are!" he said as he brought out a pokeball.

Seeing his actions, Ash only chuckled, "I've been waiting for you to say that.."

And then, he snapped his fingers...

Knowing what was coming, Gary hastily stood up, pulling Mrs. Ketchum with him. Unfortunately, Brock and Misty weren't so lucky as they ended up falling on their asses as soon as the chairs flew away. The chairs were soon followed by the silverware, pates, and chandeliers as the dining room was converted into a huge battlefield.

While most of the betraying group looked on in awe at this, the Professor just scowled, not letting his expression show that he was just as surprised as the others.

Within moments, Ash and the Professor were staring each other down at opposite ends of the room. Now, Ash was no fool, despite what some people thought. He knew that the Professor was quite the trainer back in his day. One of the best, even. But that was 30 years ago, so he wouldn't have his original team. Still.. the ghostly child had a funny feeling that he knew which pokemon the Professor would be using.

On the other side, the Professor just glared, though inwardly he was confused, scared, and deep down, torn. He was confused about the boy in front of him and the changes that he had seemingly undergone. He was scared at the power the boy now held. Lastly, he was torn.. did he make the right decision? Did they all make the right decision?

...Of course they did! It was obvious that Ash wasn't competent enough to be a trainer. Even his Pokemon agreed with them. And with how the boy was acting now, it was obvious that something shady and possibly illegal was going on. And he would uncover it!

"Does a two-on-two sound fair to you, Professor?" Ash called

The old Oak nodded, "That's fine. And when I win, you will reveal to us what you have been doing with these ghost pokemon and turn yourself in to the League!" he yelled, catching everyone off guard, though Gary wasn't that surprised. He knew how his gramps was when he felt angry or double-crossed.

Ash just snorted, "fine, but if you lose, you lave and never return, got that?!" he said, raising his voice for the first time.

"FINE!" the man said, readying a pokeball, "I'm sure you'll recognize my first choice. Go, Tauros!"

In a flash, the stomping Bull Pokemon appeared, mooing loudly as its diamond hard hooves clapped against the floor.

Ash stared at the rowdy steer and smirked, "very well then, allow me to introduce you to an old friend you all know and should remember.. after all.. you killed him.."

The Professor glared while the others shifted awkwardly.

"Allow me to introduce you to the new and improved Pikachu.. ROTOM, COME FORTH!"

With his call, the lights in the room flickered and dimmed, and a small gust of mysterious wind blasted through the room, making everyone close or squint their eyes. When they opened their eyes again, they saw a small, orange, floating pokemon with two blue lightning bolt-like appendages. It had blue eyes that seemed too large for its body, and seeming to hum with electrical energy. The fact that it was wearing a very deep frown probably wasn't a good sign either..

"Roootooomm..." it said in what seemed like a low growl..

The Professor took one look at the electric ghost and snorted, "Ha! You really expect me to believe that little floating lightbulb is Pikachu? You've definitely gone insane!"

The next thing he or anyone knew, Rotom was in his face, _"I suggest you watch your tone old man.. I will never forgive you for what you did to me or Ash on that day!"_ it's said in the heads telepathically, _"Or even what you did to me at the Lab the day before you gave me to Ash. Should I tell everyone about the.. 'harmless samples' you tried to take from me?"_ he said with a leer, making the old man grow as pale as the Dining room walls. Only the true Pikachu would know and remember that...

While everyone else in the betraying party looked on shocked at the ghost's message, Ashura kept his apathetic stare. Rotom had already told him about what happened shortly after his reincarnation. Still, it was entertaining to watch the old man's reaction.

Recovering from the shock, Professor Oak started to glare again, "Enough of this! I have no time for such games!"

"I couldn't agree more with you, Prof." Ash said as Rotom returned to his side of the battlefield, "let's get started shall we? I'll let you have the first move."

"Grr, fine! And I'll make sure you regret it! Tauros, Zen Headbutt!"

With a loud call, Taurous stampeded forward, its head and horns aglow with psychic energy as it charged at Rotom. Ash had to give the old man credit though. The old him was not able to teach his Tauros that move, mostly because he didn't try and barely trained them.. but the new him..

"Rotom, Dark Pulse!"

Not missing a beat, Rotom quickly formed an orb of darkness in his appendages and fired it forward, releasing a long string of dark hoops, aimed right at the incoming bull. The attacks met in the middle, and unfortunately for Tauros, thanks to attack typing, the Dark Pulse attack quickly overwhelmed Zen Headbutt, sending the bull backwards and off its hooves. Everyone looked on, shocked at seeing the result of that exchange.

"What attack was that?" Misty asked out loud

"That was Dark Pulse.. a dark type attack, and a good counter for a psychic type attack like Zen Headbutt" Gary informed them

"What Power.." Brock said in awe

"On your feet, Tauros!" the Professor urged, not deterred by the power of that last attack, "Let's show Ash what he lost when he neglected to train you properly, use Icy Wind!"

Tauros mooed and let loose a strong wind of icy breath from its mouth, blasting Rotom and making become covered in ice.

 _'Gah, that's cold.."_ thought Rotom before smirking, _'... however..'_

'We know how to use that ice, don't we.' Ash thought with a shared smirk

"Now, Tauros, use Zen Headbutt once more!" The Professor yelled, confident that he had won this round.

Just as before, Tauros ran forward towards the little frozen ghost, its head and horns alit with psychic energy.

Ash, however, just chuckled, making everyone look at him oddly, "Thanks for the ice.. Rotom, Freezer Form! Then Blizzard!"

"WHAT?!"

With a flash of light, Rotom's form shifted to look like that of a demented refrigerator with eyes, before it smirked and blasted the incoming bull with a powerful Blizzard attack. Unable to dodge in time, Tauros groaned as it was once again blasted backwards, halfway frozen. After the attack was done Rotom changed back to its original shape.

"What the hell?!" The Professor called out, unable to believe his eyes.

Seeing his reaction, Ash just chuckled, "you see, we found that Rotom has a very unique little ability that can be very handy if used right. Whenever he is hit by certain attacks, he can change his form to that of the appliances he loves to possess. The form depends on the move used. Unfortunately, the change only lasts one turn." he shrugged as he finished his explanation. "Now, where were we.." he asked with a smirk, "Ah yes..Rotom, shock Tauros with Discharge! Then finish this with Electroball!"

With a smirk, Rotom quickly complied, releasing a large amount of electricity everywhere, striking Tauros and paralyzing it. The ghost then quickly followed up with forming a ball of pure electricity in its appendages and then launching it at the still paralyzed Tauros.

The poor bull had nowhere to run as it was hit directly by the attack, making it skid backwards and down to the ground, where it didn't get back up.

"Looks like I win round one, Professor.." Ashura stated with a satisfied smirk, making the old man scowl.

"That may be true.." Oak said as he returned Tauros, "but you won't win this one.. for I am using the pokemon that you could never hope to have listen to you. Go, Charizard!"

In a flash, the huge fire starter, and Ash's former friend, appeared with a guttural roar. Seeing his former trainer before him made the fire type smirk and get ready for battle. He had been waiting to put this kid in his place...

Seeing the beast made Ash frown deeply. This was the pokemon that started all of his problems in his opinion. The big, stupid oaf thought he was too good to listen.. too powerful..

..He would show him his mistake..

"Rotom, I know you want some revenge on this asshole, but I want to show the Professor another member of our happy family." he said with a smirk

"Ro?" the little ghost said, slightly pissed odd that he wouldn't have a chance at Charizard. However, catching on to the plan, he reluctantly nodded and returned to Ash's side.

"Very well, Professor, I have just the partner for that walking bag of hot air.." Ash said before yelling to the ceiling, "Gengar, come forth from the shadows!"

Seemingly out of nowhere, the Shadow Pokemon appeared, its malicious looking grin making them all step back, visibly unnerved.

However, the Professor was not one to be deterred, "Ch-Charizard, flamethrower on that ghost!"

Surprisingly, or not so surprisingly, Charizard listened, as it roared and shot out a powerful flame at the ghost, lighting up the room ten-fold.

"Evade, then Shadow Punch!" Ash commanded.

Immediately, Gengar took to the shadows that were left in the room, dodging the attack, before launching a fist made completely of shadow-like energy. It was a direct hit, as the unavoidable attack smacked Charizard in the face.

"Charizard, use whirlwind, blow that ghost away!"

Complying again, Charizard flapped its mighty wings forward, causing a huge gust of wind to blow through the room. Although it did not do much damage at all to Gengar, it forced him to reveal himself, if only for a moment.

"There! Fire Blast!" The Professor called out as he pointed towards the ghost.

"Meet it with Dark Pulse, the follow up with Toxic!" Ash command

Charizard inhaled a deep breath before letting loose a huge blast of fire, shaped like a kanji. Gengar, however, just chuckled as he powered up his own attack, and sent a wave of darkness forward, meeting with the Fire Blast attack in the middle of the field. After a brief struggle, the two attacks sparked wildly and caused an explosion of dark fire and smoke, clouding up the field.

"Careful, Grandpa!" Gary called out, recognizing the danger, "Ash's ghost like to sneak up on you when your vision is clouded!"

"makes sense.." the man grumbled, "Charizard, keep your guard up, in case of a sneak attack! Whirlwind again!"

The pseudo Dragon grunt as he looked around anxiously and prepped his wings..

..only to feel a chill go up his pine moments later..

"Behind you!" The Professor called out

Hastily, Charizard turned around, readying a flamethrower, only to get a face full of toxic liquid. With a deep groan, he stared to spit and sputter, as he tried to get the stuff off of him. But it was too late, he had been poisoned.

The Professor growled, "that won't stop us! While its close, use Fire blast!"

Charizard roared and released another kanji shaped fire, blasting the ghost back before it could get away.

"Ha!" The old man cheered as the others cheered for the successful hit.

Ash, however, didn't even look worried. One word.. and Gary knew this battle was over.

"Hex.."

Quickly recovering from the firey attack, Gengar's eye began to glow with purple, malevolent power.

For a second, Charizard just blinked, before his body became outline in the same energy, causing the huge beast to roar loudly in pain and thrash around the room, causing even more damage to himself.

"Hang in there, Charizard!" The Professor called out desperately. But it was no use.

"Alright, Gengar, that's enough." Ash said to his pokemon who halted the attack.

Surprisingly, Charizard was still standing, albeit barely.

As he watched large fire starter try to gain his bearings, Ash couldn't help but feel some pity. Hex was a devastating move when coupled with the effects of Toxic. Not many pokemon can stand up to it. Those who did, usually went down within a few moves.

That, and despite all of the trouble that blasted dragon had caused, Ash still had a soft spot in his heart for his former friend. In a way, he only did what was natural to the species. He didn't see his trainer as an equal worthy of respect, so he rebelled. It was human error that led them the rest of the way. Still, he wouldn't forgive the oaf just like that for throwing the friendship away in exchange for pride.

"Well, Professor?" Ash started, "Charizard looks to be in pretty bad shape.. do you want to continue?"

The man just growled at him, "I will not lose to the likes of you! I WILL have answers! Charizard!"

The flame pokemon looked back at the Professor, "where's your pokemon Pride?! Do you really want to get beaten by your former incompetent trainer?!"

At that, the pokemon grunted and shook his head. No, he wouldn.t.. couldn't have been beaten by his former trainer and his team..

But this boy.. this trainer in front of him.. was almost nothing like his former trainer...

He was confident, calm, competent, really strong, and even...scary..

What happened to him?

"Charizard! FOCUS!"

Hearing the old man's yell, Charizard shook himself of these thoughts and got ready to battle again. Although he had taken some heavy damage, he felt he could still keep going. He showed that by letting out an ear splitting roar.

In response, Gengar and Ash let out a shared chuckle, "interesting.." Ash whispered, "I guess we'll continue."

"Damn straight!" The Professor said, "Charizard, use flamethrower!"

"Dark Pulse.." Ash said with an exasperated sigh. Despite Charizard's tenacity, the old man's repetitive straight forward style was making this very boring. Then again, couldn't really blame him since Charizard can't really fly in here and his signature attacks wouldn't work on ghost types..

Charizard seemed to be thinking the same thing as it huffed and sent out another flamethrower, just as Gengar sent forward a dark pulse.

The attacks met in the middle before dark pulse, once again overpowered the fire attack and hit Charizard head on, making him fall backwards.

Oak just growled, "get up, Charizard, we can't lose this fight!" he urged, while the others now looked on, worried.

Surprisingly, Charizard did stand up, and turned his head towards the old man with a look of contempt.

"Good, now, use fire blast!" he shouted..

...nothing happened..

"Huh?" Oak said, perplexed, "Charizard, fire blast, NOW!"

..nothing again...

At the repeat commands, the fire started just snorted out a small blast of smoke toward the old coot. Ash may have not been the smartest, and nowhere near the strongest trainer. But at least he was creative.. His out of the box strategies were a sight to behold when they worked, which they normally did. This... was just stupid..

As the old man continued to growl at him, Charizard smirked and layed down on the battle ground, in his classic 'I don't give a fuck' position.

The action not only caused Oak and his party to look on shocked, but it also caused Ash and his ghost to bust out laughing.

"BUAHAHAHAHA!" The boy laughed, "Oh man, this is too much! Now who's the incompetent one, Professor? Hmm?"

"SHUT UP!" The man shouted, "Charizard, if you don't get up right now, you will have no home at the corral! GOT IT?!"

Hearing that, Charizard, got up and glared at the man, before turning his flamethrower on him.

"GAAAAHH!" Was all the professor could say before he fell to the ground, burnt to a crisp.

"Gramps!" "Professor!" Everyone but Ash yelled as they went to help the man back to his feet. Of course, seeing all this only made Ash and his friends laugh even more, "Oh this is just too much! I have to thank you for one thing, Professor. I haven't laughed this hard in a long time. I have to say that this is almost perfect!"

After standing up, the angry professor scowled at him and Charizard, "Humph! Fine, be that way!" he said as he took Charizard's pokeball and pressed the release button, causing Charizard to be enveloped in a bluish light as he was freed from any ownership.

"G-grandpa! What did you just do?!" Gary asked, shocked

"Yea! Charizard, technically wasn't even yours!" Brock argued

"Enough! We're better off without that stubborn bag of fire!"

"ROOOARR!" the fully evolved fire type bellowed before shooting more fire at the group, making them dance around the room to dodge the flames.

With a chuckle, Ash stepped forward, "I guess, that means the battle's over.. my win of course.." he said with a smirk, before frowning, "now that that has been decided, it's time for you all to live up to your end of the deal.."

"W-wait.." the quivering voice of Deliah spoke before stepping forward, some trace tears in her eyes.

"Honey.. please..I am so sorry for what I did and helped do to you..I- I truly thought it was for the best.. but now.. I see that I couldn't have been more wrong.." he said as tears started to pour from her eyes, "I-just want us to be a family again.. please honey..can you forgive me?"

Ash just stared at her with his cold, purple eyes. A part of him felt sympathy for his mother, and wanted to hug her. Obviously she felt guilty for what happened. The colder part of him, however.. thought she should've known better than to betray her own flesh and blood, and didn't think she deserved forgiveness.. not anyway..

"I will forgive... once I have felt you have earned it.." he said as he closed his eyes for a moment, before snapping them open again, "but for now... get out!"

"what?!" Brock uttered

"But.. but Ash!" his mother begged

"I said.. Get OUT!" the ghostly trainer shouted, his eyes now glowing menacingly

"But we aren't done here! " Misty argued

"Yes, we still have questions!" Brock said, backing her up.

"And we're not leaving here until we get the answers!" Oak insisted, with Gary nodding behind him.

By this time, Ash was seething. His eyes glowed even brighter as a black and purple wind started to swirl around him. By this time, Gastly, Gengar, Haunter, and Rotom had joined around him, surrounded in the same energy. Seeing this, everyone suddenly got very nervous and scared of the power their old friend now seemed to control.. and how it flared and pulsed erratically .. not good

"GEEEEETTT OOOUUUUTTT!"

With the volume of his voice, the ghostly energy shot forward, sweeping them all off of their feet and through the air. The group wailed as they toppled end over end through the air, out of the room, down the hallways, and out the nearest window.. still on the top floor!

"WAAAAHHHHH!" They all screamed as they fell down towards the hard ground.

Luckily for them, there was a huge pile of hay right under them, enough cushion to break their fall.. almost..

"OOOWwww..!" The professor moan, "my lumbego.."

"That wasn't pleasant.." Brock mumbled

"Ugh.. " Misty moaned as she stood up.. only to look over at the still conscious, yet silent Delia

"Mrs. Ketchum.. are you alright?" Misty asked

The woman nodded, but didn't speak.. Upon closer inspection, one could see her shoulders start to shake and could hear almost silent sobs escape her mouth, "my baby..."

Seeing this, everyone immediately huddled around the brokenhearted woman to console her, holding her and patting her back. At first, she was inconsolable, but eventually her tears stopped as she started to fall asleep, exhausted. Seeing this, the group lead her back to the pokemon center to rest and recover.

On their way there, the others made a vow. No matter how strong was now, they would make him pay for making his mother cry like that. Despite what he's been through, that was going too far. They would find a way to make him pay for not only throwing them out a window to their possible deaths, but for devastating his own mother..

..But the question was.. how?

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Back inside the Tower, Ash had calmed himself down with the help of his friends...

Miraculously, the damage done to the window and rooms had healed itself almost immediately after the incident.

 _"They will be back, you know.."_ Haunter said with a frown, _"I can sense that they are already planning to come back for revenge.."_

Hearing that, Ash just sighed, "I figured as much.. no matter.. we'll just have to be ready for them.."

He then turned towards Charizard, who had been standing in the corner. His friend..no.. his former friend.. who now seems to be willing to show some kind of respect.. but how long will that last..

That.. and he was a ghost trainer now, and a Charizard didn't exactly fit the bill.. He could ask Giratina for help with that.. if he really wanted to..

Or he could send him some place where he could be happy and free.. he had heard of a place in the Johto region that may work..

As he contemplated his options, he and his partners stared at the newly liberated pseudo-dragon, "what are we going to do with you?"

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

 **AAANNNND DONE!**

 **CLIFFHANGER!.. sort of**

 **Seriously, what am I going to do with Charizard? I'll put a poll up for you guys to decide.. either send him off to the Charicific Valley or turn him into a ghost.. more than likely a litwick, where he would have to work his way up again.. but that seems kinda cruel and against his nature... haven't decided yet.**

 **Reviews welcome, flames will be fed to Lance's red Gyarados.**


	4. Chapter 4: Failure is not an Option

ANNND Here we are! Time for more ghostly michief!

What will happen this time? Will the betrayers come back? Is more trouble brewing? And what happened to Charizard?

Well, let's find out!

Oh, and sorry that I took so long to update this story. You'll forgive me right?...Right? o_o

Anyways... ON WITH THE SHOW!

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN POKEMON

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It had been a very quiet few weeks at the Tower since Oak's appearance. More trainers were showing up to battle, sure, but other than that, there was nothing to really report... Except for one event, but.. that will be explained in a second.

The reason for the influx of fighters was obvious. Word about the growing strength of the Tower's ghosts had spread far outside of Lavender. One rumor was that a possessed trainer haunts the place and gives the pokemon strength. Another rumor was that the ghosts had been blessed by Giratina himself. If they only knew..

The rumors only grew more in intensity and number once people found out that Professor Oak himself visited the infamous Tower.. and was promptly driven out. How? How was that possible? It was fairly common knowledge that not only was Professor Oak a world famous researcher, but he was also one of the world's top trainers back in the day. So what or who was strong enough to completely drive such a powerful and respected figure out of Lavender Tower?

As fast as the news and rumors spread, it was only a matter of time before they reached the wrong ears...

"Is everyone ready?" A shadowed figure said to the rest of his group, which consisted of at least ten other figures covered by the darkness.

"Ready here," another said, readying her supplies, "dark types ready?"

"Check!" a third figure stated as he also readied his equipment

"Scanners?"

"Check!"

"Anti-sleep gear?"

"Check!"

"Alright, we're ready. Now listen closely," the commander said, "there's supposed to be a large amount of ghost types, but rumors also say there is a trainer residing here now and training the ghosts. If you see this said trainer, radio it in. We want him or her for our own purposes," the man said with a smirk, which was shared by the rest of his team. And with a final check, they took off straight into the Tower front entrance...

One hour later..

..All was silent at the infamous Tower as the citizens of Lavender Town slept peacefully in blissful ignorance.

..until..

*BAM!*

*CRASH!*

*SWOOP!*

"What the FUCK!"

"BOOOOOOM!*

"This is the Commander! Retreat! RETREAT!"

 _"Too late.."_

*ROOOOAAAAAARRR!*

"LOOK OUT!"

"WHAT IS THAT THING!"

*SCREEEEECH!*

*BZZzzzZZZT*

All communications went dead ...

The next thing anyone saw or heard was a black-clad man crashing through and falling from the top story window of Lavender Tower. The next sound heard was a sickening splat as he hit the ground, his bloody, broken body now lifeless.

He was soon followed by his nine other black-clad grunts, who tried in vain to escape the Tower's rage before they too were hurled from various windows and, in some cases, walls of the Tower. Their screams echoed through the night as they fell to the cold, heartless concrete.

Then... all was silent.

Of course, all of the commotion attracted attention, as various Lavender townspeople, including the resident Officer Jenny, rushed to the scene to see what the hell just happened. What they found was shocking..

Just outside of Lavender Tower, now littering the loose gravel and concrete that made up the road, were ten broken and bleeding bodies what appeared to be Team Rocket agents. None were moving, and only one or two appeared to be breathing, barely alive.

As the gathering crowd looked at all of the broken glass and debris that surrounded the dead and dying agents, many wondered how this happened? Or even what happened?

"Up there!" someone called out as they pointed to the top floor of the Tower's now broken window. As all eyes turned towards the sky, a couple small gasps were heard as everyone saw a young boy dressed in black, staring down at them all with purple, almost glowing eyes. He seemed to glare at the Rocket bodies, then at the crowd, before retreating back into the Tower.

Those eyes.. they were enough to send shivers down a grown man's spine...

..Was that the fabled 'Ghost Master' that all the visiting trainers challenged were supposedly defeated by?

After tonight's display.. none would doubt it..

... By the next morning, all would be shocked to see that the Tower's windows had been replaced, and walls miraculously mended...

..like last night never happened...

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Meanwhile, back in Pallet town, Misty, Brock and the Professor were having a meeting about a certain old acquaintance of theirs..

"Did you see new from yesterday?" The dark skinned trainer asked as he brought up the article in question on his tablet, titled "MYSTERIOUS MAYHEM IN LAVENDER: Rocket grunts found injured,dead outside of Lavender Tower."

While the Professor just nodded, Misty went completely wide eyed, "what the hell happened?!" she asked as she speed read through the article.

"Apparently, a Team Rocket raid gone bad," The Professor responded, "according to reports from witnesses and survivors, a unit of Rocket grunts were on a mission to capture the powerful ghost types that now reside in the Tower along with the so called 'Ghost Master.' However, as you can plainly see.." he pointed to the front page picture, "They were stopped.. by what one person said was a 'mysterious and deadly Pokemon' that completely dominated the Rockets before they had a chance to execute any plans. They were then expelled from the Tower's top floors down to the ground below."

"Woah..." Brock said as he read the article in full. Sure, he had heard about the incident, but didn't know the full story, "what were the casualties?"

Samuel hummed as he sipped his tea, "seven confirmed dead, three more critically injured. The only fortunate thing about this is that they were all Rocket members with lengthy criminal records. Still.." he said grimly, "if Ash and those ghosts are truly behind this.."

"Then there's no telling what else he's capable of," Brock finished for him, "he could probably wipe out that whole town if he wanted to!"

"We have to stop him then!" Misty added, "Before he gets any stronger! He's abusing his power already, there's no telling what he'll do next!"

That's when the front door swung open, "I'm back!" called a familiar, slightly nasally voice.

"We're in the sitting room, Gary!" The professor called to his grandson, who walked into the room a few moments later with a smile on his face.

Seeing said smile, the older man became slightly more cheerful, "I take it your visit to the League office was fruitful?"

At the question, the boy smirked, "Oh yeah. After showing them what you gave me, along with all of the other activity over there, they agreed to send over an Official in one week's time. Not too shabby, if I say so myself, "the auburn-haired boy said as he crossed his arms, showing all of the pride and arrogance he was known for.

Upon hearing this, the Professor's face broke into a wide smile as he nodded and stood up, "Excellent! In that case, why don't we take another trip to the Tower as well, so we can witness the League's work"

"Good idea!" Misty smiled brightly before it turned into a sad frown, "too bad Mrs. Ketchum won't be able to come.."

At the mention of Ash's mother, everyone adopted a frown onto their faces.. the woman had had a mental and emotional breakdown when she came home..

"That's probably for the best though.." The Professor assured them, "No telling what she would've done if she saw Ash again so soon. Besides, last time I talked with Spencer, he said that she was doing fine, and that Molly was serving as a perfect distraction."

"That makes sense," Brock said with a nod, "She gets to be a mother all over again.. like a redo, since her first child was a bit of a fail.."

"I still can't believe that Ash would do that to his own mother," Misty said angrily as her cheeks puffed out, "He might've completely destroyed her emotional well being!" she yelled, completely forgetting that it was the mother that had done that same thing to her son first.

"Let's not dwell on that right now," Gary interrupted, "we have a lot to do before leaving for Lavender Town, so let's not drag our feet!"

"Right!" everyone nodded in agreement as they headed to their rooms to pack.

In the meantime, Professor Oak had gone into his study to look over the numerous articles he had collected over the past several months, depicting the chain of events that led up to this upcoming event.

From the first article, which was a rough story of a Pokemon fight in the woods and the resulting death of an unnamed trainer's pokemon; to the most recent article which was read earlier that day. Now, it all led up to this..

"Soon..." the old man said with a heavy said, "Soon, the League will shut this whole situation down and we can clean up this stain that has been left on Pallet Town as well as give Lavender some peace.." he smiled. Soon, Ash would be dealt with and they could end this whole fiasco.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

By a week's end, the four traitors were once again in Lavender Town. This time, they were at the Pokemon Center waiting for the League representative to arrive. They had been waiting since eight that morning and it was almost one o clock, so they were getting anxious.

"what the hell is taking so long?!" Misty griped, holding on tighter to her aforementioned Togepi, who whined pitifully in response.

"Patience, Misty. They'll be along soon," The professor said in a calm, even tone as he sipped some tea. Though, internally, he was having similar thoughts, 'They should've been here by now..has the league gotten so lazy? Or perhaps they decided this isn't really worth their time..'

Just as those thoughts crossed his mind, the door two the center opened revealing two, very different figures.

The first one was a tall female figure in a black, skirted business suit. She had sharp green eyes that peered behind a pair of glasses, dark purple hair in a short bob style, and was holding an expensive looking briefcase.

The second figure, no one could make anything of, due to the black cloak he or she was wearing. The only other noticeable things about the figure was that he or she was shorter than the average adult, and carried a simple looking cane.

Seeing the little group of four, the two new arrivals walked over to them with, the woman with a smile on her face, "it's a pleasure to meet you, Professor Oak. My name is Lana, I am here to represent the League on the distressing matter that you're grandson alerted us to." she greeted as she held out her hand, which the Professor readily shook.

"The pleasure is all mine, Lana. I must say, I was pleased to hear that the League was willing to take this matter seriously," he said, then frowned, "I assure you, that your time won't be wasted. The boy that now resides in the Tower now is delusional as well as dangerous. And I have proof that he is practicing pokemon training without a valid license."

Lana just nodded, "that's what we're hearing, and that's what we're going to investigate," she said, before someone else unexpectedly took her hand. The investigator could only go wide as she saw a kneeling Brock in front of her, looking at her with hearts in his squinted eyes, "Perhaps after you investigate Ash, you and I can investigate the subject of love together!" the boy said overzealously, causing everyone around him to form massive sweatdrops on their heads..

Until Misty kindly saved everyone from further embarrassment by promptly grabbing one of Brock's ears and pulling him back, "maybe you and I should investigate where your brain disappeared to," he said with a irritated look on her face, ignoring Brock's cries of "not the ear!"

The rest of the group shared a slightly uneasy laugh before Lana gestured to the second, unidentified figure, "allow me to introduce our second representative, who insisted on joining me on this case. They wish to remain anonymous until the end of the investigation."

The hooded figure just nodded their head and grunted, giving no clue as to who he or she could be. Still, the cane made them all wonder.. Especially the professor, who could've sworn that he had seen that cane somewhere before..

"Anyways, shall we get going then?" the tall business woman said as she gestured outside, "and on the way, you can tell me more about our resident squatter, hmm?"

"Oh! Certainly!" the Professor said with a smile on his face as the group of six made their way towards the Tower, with the cloaked figure taking up the rear at a slightly slower pace than the others. The whole time they were walking, the figure wondered, 'Could he have made another child?'

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Within a matter of moments, the small group found themselves in front of the intimidating tower, which seemed to be forever shrouded in a veil of ominous fog.

"So tell me," Lana spoke, seemingly affected by the Tower's appearance, "where exactly did you encounter young Ash during your last visit here?"

"He was actually somewhere on the top floor of the tower, past the public memorial sites," Gary answered as a shiver passed through his spine, "it looked like he had made himself right at home up there.."

"really now..." the woman said as she looked up at the top floor, "well then, let's not delay this any longer, shall we?" she said before turning towards Gary and the others, "mind leading the way then? Since you know the place better.."

"R-right.. no problem, "the young Oak said hesitantly as he led the group inside. As he still vividly remembered his last two visits here to the Tower, it was understandable why he was a little less than thrilled to be coming back here a third, and hopefully last time.

Slowly, but surely, the group made their way up the eight flights of stairs that led to the top floor, where their 'old acquaintance' supposedly resided.

The place was just as dark and quiet as all of the other times. No signs of life were visible except for the howling winds that battered against the shutters. The dims lights were flickering and the shadows on the walls seem to be moving. All the more to make the setting as creepy as possible.

Eventually, they made to the deserted ninth floor, where the strange, glowing altar still resided. It hadn't changed since the last time they were there, but the creepy glow it gave off sent shivers up everyone's spine.

The sight of the ghostly altar brought mixed opinions..

"That thing still gives me the creeps.." Gary said as he looked at it, receiving nods of agreement from the other traitors.

Lana remained impassive towards the altar, while the cloaked figure looked at it in awe, 'it's glowing..I can't believe it's actually glowing..'

"I'm disappointed..." A new, mysterious, yet oh so familiar voice rang out within the memorial. Upon hearing it, a second set of shivers went up everyone's spine and through their bodies as they tried to find the source of the disembodied voice.

Then, from behind the spirit revered altar came the figure of a young male with long black hair tied back in a pony tail, and almost glowing purple eyes.

The boy chuckled as he came into full view of the small group, one hand gently resting on the edge of the memorial altar, "and here I thought the great Gary Oak would appreciate a piece of priceless art," he said with a smirk as he trailed a finger over the marble that made up the base of the altar.

Gary said nothing.. he couldn't ... he was frozen in place by his own body.. literally frozen in fear. He had seen Ash's power first hand, not once, but twice, and that was enough for a lifetime of nightmares. Now, here he was again, and for the life of him, he couldn't remember why he agreed to come back here.

"Which leads to my next question.." Ash said as a scowl formed on his face, "what the hell ARE you all doing here?"

Just as he asked that, a mysterious wind picked up in the room, making everyone involuntarily shiver and their hair sway.

"I believe my previous order to GET OUT and STAY OUT is still in effect!" the pale boy said in a voice that seemed to echo throughout the whole tower.

By this time, the traitors were shaking in fear of the boy in front of them, the boy that they previously thought they had broken down and left with nothing. Now it looked like he was going to break them... into teeny tiny little pieces.

Eventually though, Professor Oak regained his nerve and stepped forward from the group, "we're here to put a stop to this, Ash!" he yelled as he tried to force his authority over the young trainer, "your days of playing 'Ghost Master' and abusing the power of the resident ghost types here have come to an end! These two league officials are here to make sure of that!" he said as he gestured to Lana and the cloaked figure, neither of whom had moved since the young ghost trainer appeared.

Ashura looked them both over with a calculative eye..

The tall woman appeared to be one of at least some authority, as well as nerves of steel if the way she's acting is any indication. She was staring right back at him with the same calculative stare..

The figure in the cloak, however, was what really peaked his interest.

Their form was completely covered by the cloak, sans the cane, and gave no clues to their identity. Still, despite that, Ash couldn't help but notice that there was something different, a strong... familiar feeling about this person. They gave off an aura that he had only felt twice before.. from Giratina and himself. Only difference was that theirs felt.. much more powerful and experienced than his own. Who was this person?

After he finished looking them over, the boy just nodded his headed with an impassive expression, "pleasure to meet you both.." he said as he crossed his arms. He then glared at the others with a hateful stare, "and you're hoping that they'll just throw the League handbook at me, hmm? For what purpose? Is my very existence here disturbing you somehow?" he asked, before smirking, "Or maybe it's because, despite all you've done to me, I still came out on top, and that just irks you like nothing else."

The Professor merely growled in response, "Enough of this! I know that something illegal is going on here! You have no license to train pokemon, as I revoked that myself! And there is no way possible that you could've become so strong in a matter of months!"

"And that is why we are here," Lana said as she spoke for the first since Ashura's arrival, "to assure that no league rules are being violated, as well as to ensure the well being of the local ghost pokemon that live here," she explained as she opened up a tablet, "so, if you don't mind, I have a few questions."

Seeing that she was serious, Ash just chuckled and nodded, "ask away"

"Thank you," the woman said as she opened up a program on her tablet, "now, firstly, do you, or do you not, have a valid Pokemon Trainer's license?"

To answer her question, Ashura snapped his fingers, and in a flash of black sparks, a card appeared in his hand, "here you are. I do indeed have a valid license, though it is restricted so that I can only train and battle within the borders of Lavender Town," he explained as he presented it to her.

Upon taking and examining the license card, Lana found that it did indeed look legitimate. However, she didn't know who this 'Mr. Fuji' was, and she certainly never heard of a Nurse Joy co-signing a license.

"This license is... questionable at best," she responded before looking up at him, "and who is Mr. Fuji?"

"The caretaker of the Tower of course. Not to mention the town Patriarch," the boy answered in a matter-of-fact tone, "He and Nurse Joy took me in when I had nothing left, and helped me become the trainer you see today."

At his explanation, the purple haired woman let out a huff, "either way, I don't recall ever hearing this Mr. Fuji's name or seeing it on our League's list of certified Licensers"

"Exactly what I've been saying!"the white haired Professor interrupted loudly, "There is no way he is a legitimate Pokemon trainer!"

In response, Ashura just chuckled, "maybe you're looking in the wrong place. I did say it was restricted. And even then, the issue of a questionable license is not nearly big enough to draw the attention of the League. So tell me.." he smirked as he stepped forward, making the traitors unconsciously take a step back, "what other affairs do you have here?"

At his question, Lana smiled, "you're a smart one," she commented, ignoring Misty's snort in the background, "as a matter of fact, there are some other more pertinent issues that need to be discussed, such as the recent activity that has been going on here in the past 6 months or so." She then brought up another file on her tablet, "reports from trainers of a powerful ghost trainer at Lavender Tower. Several reports from Professor Oak himself and his grandson. Then, there is also the most recent incident involving some Team Rocket members, many of which ended up losing their lives," she stated as she brought up the article.

At each point she made, Ash nodded lightly, "I won't deny that I've kicked the asses of quite a few trainers during my stay here. I also won't deny that I was visited by Professor oak and his grandson on more than one occasion," he then put on an almost evil smirk, "and I sure as hell won't deny that I fucked those Rocket scumbags sideways and gave them what they deserved. Their fault for trespassing and trying to break up my family."

While the League reps merely looked impassive at his comments, the traitors glared at him angrily.

"That's disgusting!" Misty hollered

"Have you no sympathy for the lives you took?!" Brock growled

"And the number of Pokemon you put in the ICU?" Gary said as back up

"All the more reason why you should be kicked out of here!" The Professor finished, just as angry

"Enough.." a new voice called out, effectively silencing the traitors. After a moment of ominous quiet, the cloaked figure stepped forward towards Ash. The raven haired boy just looked down at the person in front of him, who seemed to be staring back.

Then, the person spoke, in an older, female voice, "I must say, you intrigue me young man, and not just because of the stories I hear," then, she seemed to smile, "I'd like to challenge you to a one-on-one battle, in which the results will determine your fate and if the League should interfere."

Lana, for the first time, showed some emotion in her face, that of shock and slight uncertainty, "ah.. Ma'am, are you sure?"

"certainly," the hooded female responded, before looking back to Ash, "how about this. You win, and the League will leave you be to do as you please. If you lose, your fate will be up to me," she then frowned, "refuse, and I'm afraid that the League will have to pursue this matter seriously, which could lead to you being thrown in jail"

"Why even give him a chance?!"

"Just throw him in there!"

"Hush!" Lana yelled, glaring at the traitors and effectively shutting them up

After staring at the cloaked figure for a moment, that feeling of familiarity and power came back to the boy's mind. Did he know this person? Should he know this person? Her aura was so much like his, with that almost dark, not evil, but definitely mischievous feel to it... but definitely stronger... what did all of this mean?

Still, back to the issue at hand, he felt it was best to go with the deal, "Very well, I accept your conditions" he then smiled and turned towards a shadowed door on the side of the room, "Please, follow me. I'll take you to my battlefield," he said before almost disappearing into the shadows.

With some obvious hesitation, the rest of the group followed, unsure and unaware what would await them in the more secret parts of the Tower. They were in Ashura's domain now, after all..

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Within a few minutes, the group was in the now familiar dining room/battlefield. It was, surprisingly or not, already set up. The room was clear, the lights were dimmed, and there was an ominous feel in the air. And Ash was in the middle of it, headed to the other end of the large room.

"Now then.." the ghost boy said with a smirk as a purple and black pokeball appeared in his hand, "shall we get started?" he asked as he addressed his mysterious opponent

"Yes, lets," the woman said as she also pulled out a Dusk Ball, then turned to her partner, "Lana, will you please referee?"

"Of course," the business woman said before heading to the left side of the middle of the field, "This will be a one-on-one match between Ashura and.. the challenger" she announced, careful not to give them woman's identity away, "No time limit. The battle will be over once one side faints or forfeits. Do both sides understand and agree to those rules?"

They both nodded silently

"Then, BEGIN!"

Simultaneously, both trainers released their pokemon, only to be surprised when they both released the same Pokemon... Gengar.

"Woah!" Misty, Brock, and Gary said at once in surprise

"Gengar.." Brock breathed out

"This is gonna be intense!" Gary commented as he watched the two ghost eye each other.

Without another word, the battle started..

"I'll let you have the first move, young one," The old woman offered

"why thank you, I'll be sure not to waste such an opportunity," the boy said with a dark chuckle as he mocked bowed to her, before calling out to his friend, "Gengar, let's start this with Shadow Punch! "

Within seconds, Ash's Shadow Pokemon had conjured up the purple colored energy in his hand before sending it forward with a fist that seemed to only hit air, releasing the fist shaped Projectile at his opponent.

'Not bad.. starting with an attack that cannot miss..' the woman said with a mental nod, 'still, it's a tactic that can be easily countered by most experienced trainers..' She then called out, "Gengar, your own Shadow Punch, please?"

The woman's ghost type seemed to smirk even wider than before, a truly unnerving sight, before it charged up and sent its own, larger fist of shadowy energy forward towards the enemy Gengar.

Both attacks passed each other, unhindered from hitting their intended targets.

"Gen!" the woman's ghost grunted as it slid backwards from the force of the attack, but managed to shake it off.

"GAR!" Ashura's pokemon yelled as it took a critical hit.

"Gengar! Are you alright?" Ash said worriedly. That was a serious hit!

However, like a champ, Gengar recovered and proceeded to float, only this time there was a noticeable scowl on his face instead of the regular smirk, "Gen! Gengar Gen GAR!" ("I'm fine! Bring on the PAIN!"

"Alright! Good Job hanging in there!" he said with a spark reminiscent of the passion he used to show as a trainer. He then returned to having that creepy smile on his face, "It seems as though we are definitely dealing with an opponent of higher caliber than normal. I believe it's time to step up our game!"

"Gengar!" his partner agreed as he surrounded himself his otherworldly dark energy. Time to get serious.

Seeing this, the cloaked woman smirked, "Interesting.." she then turned to her pokemon, "Let's show them a thing or two, Confuse Ray!"

"Dodge that! To the shadows!" Ash called to his pokemon as the cloaked figure's Gengar powered up its attack. The incoming Confuse Ray resembled more like several balls of yellow light rather than a ray. However, this led to the attack being more wide spread and harder to evade. Not a problem for Ash though.

Within seconds, Ash's Gengar melted into the shadows, successfully dodging the attack.

The woman humphed, "commendable... using such simple techniques to dodge my attack.."

"Is that a compliment or an insult?" Ash asked with a frown, making the woman smirk, "However you want to take it young one."

The raven haired boy just snorted, before a smirk formed on his face, "That's all well and good, madam, however.. during our little chat.." he said as he pointed to the battlefield, where her Gengar still stood.

Suddenly, a wave of darkness formed from below..

"At your feet!" the old woman yelled a second too late

"GAR!" Her Gengar yelled as it was ambushed from below with a second Shadow Punch uppercut.

"Keep the pressure! Use Dark Pulse!" Ash yelled, determined to take control of the battle.

Gengar smirked before forming a ball of pure darkness in his clawed hands, then sending the energy forward in a myriad of hoop-like projectiles.

Unable to dodge in time after recovering from that sneak attack, the woman's Gengar took a direct super effective hit, making it growl in pain as it was sent backwards.

The woman's response was as calm as ever, apparently not concerned that her pokemon took damage, "humph, not bad.." she said before turning to her pokemon, "Hypnosis.."

"Evade that!" Ash called out, knowing the implications of that move, "Toxic to block!"

Even though they both knew that Toxic would have no real effect on a Poison type like Gengar, it still served its purpose, spreading out to act as a shield, and blocking the light waves associated with the sleep inducing attack.

"Shadow Ball," the woman said calmly.

"Block it with Dark Pulse!" Ash shouted. He needed to get the upper hand in this battle or he was fucked!

The two attacks met in the middle, making the explosion of darkness and shadows in the middle of the field. When the darkened area cleared, both ghosts were gone!

The spectators were absolutely baffled as they looked around the field.. where were they..?

The battling trainers, however, just smirked

"Are you ready to take this to the next level?" The woman asked

"Yes, let's " Ash quickly responded

The cloaked woman nodded, then shouted, "Gengar, Hypnotic Punch!"

"Gengar, Icy Drain!" The pre-teen shouted at the same time.

In another flash of darkness and shadows, both ghost types met in the middle of the battlefield with a thunderous clash.

While the woman's Gengar leapt forward with shadow covered fists and glowing pink eyes, Ash's Gengar met hers with fists cloaked in ice and greenish shadowy tendrils floating around him, ready to strike out and steal his opponent's energy.

The ghost types began striking and parrying each other with incredible force, trying their hardest to get a 1-up on eachother. With every punch the woman's Gengar threw, Ash's would deflect and attack, only for the other to either dodge or counter. The only thing that kept him from falling asleep from the Hypnotic waves the other gave off were the sporadic pulses of stolen energy he received from Giga Drain.

Each side continuously took heavy blows, and to most, the exchange looked essentially even, until...

"Gengar! Enough fooling around! Turn up the power! This one deserves your best!" the woman said with an obvious smirk.

"Huh?!" Ash asked with wide eyes.. did she just say..

In a flare of incredible and scary power, the woman's Gengar broke off the exchange and smirked. Despite its bruised appearance, it essentially looked fine, and ok to go another ten rounds. It was barely even breathing hard! Ash's, on the other hand, has definitely seen better days. Despite the beneficial energy he managed to steal, he was still spent from the exchange and his eyes were half-lidded. Maybe enough hypnotic waves made it through after all..

Soon, the cloaked figure's Gengar was surrounded by a dark, ominous aura as it cackled almost evilly.

"Now, Gengar.. Egg move and make it nap!" the woman called out

IF possible, her Gengar's smirk only got bigger as it flash forward with incredible speed before stopping and shouting right in Ashura's Gengar's face, making it fall back and flinch from surprise.

"Gengar!" Ash called out worriedly, feeling that this was only the beginning.

"Hypnosis!" she yelled, as Gengar's eyes instantly took on that now familiar pink hue. Unable to look away in time, the Tower Gengar's eyes slowly started to droop, before falling to the ground, asleep completely.

"Shit!" Ash yelled as he saw his partner and friend fall asleep. He could only imagine what move might come next... Please, please, don't let that thing know..

"Now, finish this with Dream eater!"

'Damnit...' the boy thought to himself with a grumble as he glared at the offending ghost. With his Gengar still sleep, there was no way he could defend himself from the super effective attack.

He could only watch as the woman's Gengar sent out its own shadow to attack his sleeping friend, who grumbled and yelled in pain before going completely still, knocked out.

"Ashura's Gengar is unable to battle! League's Gengar wins!" Lana called out, ending the match

"Yeah!" Yes!" "Put him in his place!" the traitors called out with glee. They had won! And now the League would decide Ash's fate.

Ash, however, didn't hear any of this. His first priority was checking on his Pokemon.

"Gengar!" the boy yelled as he virtually teleported over to him, gently shaking him, "say something, buddy.. are you ok?"

At first there was no response.. but then, the evolved ghost type let out a pained grumble, "Gen... gar.." ("That... hurt...")

Hearing this, Ash could only smile sadly, "it's alright buddy... you did your best.." he said softly as he began slowly giving Gengar some of his energy.. he couldn't give too much of it, but whatever he could spare..

It was then that a shadow fell over the two. Looking up, Ash saw it was his opponent, the cloaked woman. At first, he thought she would shocked at seeing him actually giving his Pokemon some of his energy. But surprisingly, she just smiled and knelt down next to him, "allow me to assist.." she said as she placed a hand on Gengar, which glowed with a similar energy that Ash had, making the boy go wide eyed, "No way..."

Within a few seconds, her hand stopped glowing, and Gengar slowly but surely woke up, "Gen?"

"Gengar!" Ash said happily as he hugged his ghost, almost like a child would hug a giant teddy bear, "I'm so glad you're ok!"

The scene made the woman smile, until she heard a cough behind her, only to see Lana and the rest of the boy's former friends.

"I'm sorry to interrupt ma'am, but we have some issues to attend to.. per the deal made before the fight, if you were to win, the fate of Mr. Ketchum's license would be in your hands."

"Ah yes.." the woman said as she stood up, "about that.."

During this moment, the others went over to Ash, who merely glared back

Gary was the first to speak with an arrogant smirk, "well well.. look guys, it's the dethroned King of ghosts. Royally owned by his own type specialty. Arceus, you're pathetic."

The others chuckled in response, before Misty spoke next, "Yea, loser! This just proves what we've been saying all along. You're weak!"

"Time to face facts young man," The professor said as he crossed his arms and nodded in agreement

Brock smirked, "can't even beat an old lady, how pitiful.."

Ash looked ready to kill all four of them, as a deadly aura started to surrounded, before the woman turned towards them and huffed, "how disgusting... you should never kick someone when they are down.." he said as she approached them all, "besides.." she said as she finally removed her cloak's hood, "it's not like he was beaten by just any old lady.."

Everyone in the room, with the exception of Lana, let out a gasp..

"Lady Agatha.." Ash breathed out as he stood up and bowed respectfully. In his mind, he couldn't believe it.. he had battled an Elite Four member.. and held his own! And not just any Elite Four, the Queen of Spirits herself. One of the handful of living souls in this world that could command a ghost type without question! Even the unruliest of them showed her respect. And from the power she had shown him, she was also possibly one of Giratina's Chosen children.. like him!

"Samuel, you ought to be ashamed of yourself!" Agatha berated sternly, "ganging up on a poor boy that holds so much promise, and ripping everything away from him. And for what? To save your precious pride?!"

"B-But you don't understand, Aggie.."

"Don't call me that.."

"Agatha.." the older man corrected, "This boy was and is still an embarrassment to all of Pallet Town! His loss at the League was abysmal! If he had been more competent trained that Charizard correctly, then it-"

"Oh shut up!' the woman snapped, "Everyone runs into a problem pokemon that they just can't tame, at least not right away." She then smirked, "I happen to remember a certain Dragonite that gave you quite the many hardships, eh Samuel?"

At the mention of that pokemon, all of the color left the Professor's face, "that.. that's different! I didn't use it in a League match!"

"But you did try to use it against a champion, didn't you? Because you were desperate, "Agatha then smirk, "and if I remember correctly, you lost quite miserably in that match. Dragonite wouldn't lift a finger.."

At this new revelation, the rest of the traitors looked at the Professor with looks of shock

"G-Grandpa, is that true?" "No way.." "You're way too strong.."

"D-Don't listen to anything she says.. she's just.." he didn't finish that sentence as Agatha glared up at him.

"And now.. when history threatens to repeat itself, and one of your budding trainers starts to grow a weed, you handle it in the most despicable way I've ever heard!" she said with a glare, "instead of nurturing that bud to someday blossom, you just try to kill it along with its roots!" She shook her head at him, "How low can you go?"

By this time, Ash had returned Gengar to his Pokeball to rest and had joined Lady Agatha by her side, glaring at the Professor, "I think I asked this before.. but to make sure I'll asked again..." he said as he eyes started to flare," Why...?"

At the boy's question, Oak stuttered, "Be..Because! I didn't want Pallet Town to have a bigger stain on it than it already had! On the first day of everyone's journey, I explained the importance of bringing pride back to Pallet Town, and that failure was not an option!" he explained, before glaring at the ghostly youth, "Then again, you were late that morning and missed my speech.. another sign of your impending failure and-"

"Enough!" Agatha shouted, "You've said enough.." She then huffed and turned back to Ash, "As for you. .."

The boy visibly tensed as the Elite member turned her eyes towards him.

"This temporary License you have.. " she said as she held it up, "will hereby be permanently suspended."

"YES!" the Professor whispered

"And.." she smiled, "You will be issued a brand new, unrestricted License as soon as we return to the Plateau."

"WHAT?!" The traitors yelled in surprised

Agatha chuckled, "the boy holds a lot of promise. He clawed his way back from a broken state and has already made a name for himself in this little tower. And.. maybe it's just intuition.." she said as she gave the boy a small wink, "but I feel a connection to the boy. I believe, with the right training, he could take my place in the Elite Four one day."

At her statement, Ash went wide eyed, "Really? You think I'm elite four material?"

"Of course!" the elder woman said, "now, don't start being modest now. You've certainly made a name for yourself as a strong and competent ghost type trainer. it's only inevitable that you become strong enough to be Elite level. However, with my help, you can get there much faster and more efficient."

At her offer, Ash smiled. It was the first genuine true smile he had experienced since Pikachu's resurrection. Sure, he was happy with his ghosts, but he was also restricted. Chained down to the confines of the Tower by his limited license and Oak's interference. Now, those restrictions were gone and the chains were cut. Hell yeah!

"Miss Agatha, I humbly accept your offer, and promise not to let you down," he said with a smile and a bow. At his action, the Elite nodded, "excellent."

"Now wait a minute!" Oak growled as he angrily stepped forward, "Agatha, this is-"

"I suggest you keep your mouth closed, Samuel.." she said as she turned to him with an icy glare, "at this point ,by the time I return to the Plateau, you'll be lucky to still be considered the Regional Professor."

This made Oak and the traitors stop cold. She was going to have Professor Oak removed? Could she even do that?

"And that goes for the rest of you," She said as she turned towards Brock and Misty, "I'm sure there are more competent trainers out there that would serve as better rock and water type gym leaders."

"W-what?!" Misty screeched, "But.. but you can't do that!"

"Our families and livelihoods depends on our gyms!" Brock countered as she balled his fists.

In response, Agatha just humphed, "maybe you should've thought of them before you blatantly attacked a near defenseless trainer and his pokemon. An attack that resulted in the death of said pokemon!"

Misty and Brock backed away, shocked. How the fuck did she know that?!

"I-it wasn't me!" Misty yelled before pointing an accusatory finger at Brock, "It was his Onix that dealt the death blow!"

"HEY!" Brock yelled at the orange haired teen. How dare she throw him under the bus?!

"ENOUGH!" Lana yelled before typing a few more noted in her tablet then closing it, "I suggest you all leave in a quiet, quickened manner before you agitate me or Lady Agatha any further," she commanded sternly, "The League will be in touch with all of you about the results of today's events."

That said, the traitors quietly and begrudgingly left the Tower, feeling utterly defeated. Their plan had backfired in the biggest way possible. Now the League was investigating them and not their former friend. And it may cost them everything..

Still, some questions were left unanswered...

How the hell did Agatha know about what happened that night? She mentioned things that were purposefully kept out of the papers! And how the hell did Ash get so strong so quickly? And most importantly...

How would things have turned out if they had stuck with Ash instead of turning on him. Would they have been happier, getting stronger together and going on even grander adventures? Or would the boy had led them into the abyss of despair and disaster?

Cause right now, it appeared as though the former was correct..

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

"Well, young lad?" Agatha addressed her new student as he finished packing the few things he owned, "Are you ready to go?"

"Just about.." he said as he double checked everything. Clothes, food, potions, Journal, miscellaneous items, and lastly, his five Pokeballs on his belt

..yes, five..

Upon seeing the pokeballs, Agatha frowned slightly in a perplex and curious stare, "If you don't mind me asking, what other pokemon so you have with you?"

"Well.." he started as he counted them, "These three are that of the same evolution line: Ghastly, Haunter, and Gengar. These two.." he chuckled, "are special."

"Special?"

Ash hummed and nodded, "They are the only two pokemon of my original team, though in different forms now to satisfy my specialty."

"Oh really now.." she said with a smirk, "Special 'blessings from our mutual friend I presume?"

"Yup!" the boy returned the smirk as he removed the balls from his belt, "This one was once Pikachu, but now.." he said as he opened the ball, and a happy, though slightly irate Rotom popped out, immediately glaring at Ash.

 _"What have I told you about keeping me in those goddamn pokeballs for too long?!"_

In response, Ash just blinked and gave the ghost a deadpanned look, "it's only been ten minutes.."

Rotom just huffed, _"Five minutes too long! I don't even know why I had to be in there!"_

"Because it's easier for travel," Ash responded before giving the electric type a slight glare, "and because you tend to wander and get yourself into trouble! Possessing every appliance you see.."

 _"ITS FUN!"_

Agatha couldn't help but chuckle as the two continued to go back and forth about how much trouble the young Rotom could be. Those two definitely had a strong bond. Stronger than death. The argument went on for another minute before she cleared her throat loudly to get their attention.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I believe there is still one more Pokemon unaccounted for, "she said as she pointed to the last ball in Ashura's hand.

"oh, this guy?" Ash smirked as he held the ball in front of him, "This guy, you gotta see to believe.. he used to be my disobedient Charizard, but after an incident between him and Professor Oak, he came back to me, willing to listen and be a part of the family. And believe me, he's nothing like you've ever seen before.." Then, without further delay, he threw the ball into the air, releasing the Pokemon inside.

Almost immediately, the room was lit alive with a bluish-purple light that seemed to suck in and devoir all other sources of light within the room. At the same time, a teeth-chattering roar was heard throughout the Tower.

"RRROOOOOOAAAAARRR!"

Agatha could only look on wide eyed while Ash just smirked. All the while, as she looked at the pokemon in front of her, all she could think to say was, "What beast has Giratina created this time?"

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

 **AAAAANNNNNDD DONE! FINALLY!**

 **Sheesh, this took much longer than it should've. I had to MAKE time.. add an extra hour to the day, give up sleep..**

 **But it was worth it! Totally worth it! I really liked how this chapter turned out.**

 **But I'm not perfect, I know I'm not. If you see any contradictions or issues that just make you say.. 'wtf? that's not right.,' then let me know!**

 **Flames will be eaten by my Chandelure-Ex**


End file.
